


Falling in love with the jerk

by Yukochan



Category: Naruto
Genre: Despise, F/M, Forgiveness, Love, Pregnancy, Sex, Sexual Content, Teasing, Trust
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-05-07 03:26:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 57,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yukochan/pseuds/Yukochan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tohiro Yuko is born in Konohagakure. Her parents, Daichi and Sachiko, own a weapon and herb shop named "Tohiro weapons and herbs". Yuko's ninja skills are very poor and she's often teased by Hatake Kakashi. When Yuko is 5 years old she moves away from Konoha to Kumogakure along with her parents, because they had to move the weapon shop, but they are actually moving because they are hiding. They move just before the Third shinobi world war starts, so they're being treated as spies by the Raikage.<br/>When Yuko is 25 years old she moves back to Konoha on her own. She never forgot all of the teasing that Kakashi put her through and while she was in Kumogakure she trained hard to become a better ninja and achieved the level of jonin, and eventually ANBU, but she was never let in on big secrets or meetings, due to the Raikage's mistrust.<br/>She meets Kakashi just a few days after she returned to Konoha, but she did not let him forget what he did to her and does not think of him as a friend. It takes her some time to get used to being around him and she realizes that he is not the same person he was when they were kids. He had changed and Yuko ends up falling in love with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You mean jerk!

**Author's Note:**

> This story is about Yuko's life and her relationship to Hatake Kakashi.  
> I have just a very few warnings, and if you do not like any of the warnings, or get offended by it, then please don't read the story.
> 
> This story contains:
> 
> \- Canon X OC  
> \- Original characters  
> \- Some explicit sexual content
> 
> I use the Japanese way of writing the characters' names (Example: Gai = Guy, Shii = C, Ei = A), and I write jutsus in their Japanese names as well, but I will make sure to add the English name of the jutsus at the bottom of the chapter. Any other Japanese words (except from food) that would need a translation will also be added at the end of the chapter.
> 
> I have pictures that goes with the chapters and they can be found on my deviantart page, hatakeyuko.deviantart.com

Yuko, a 5 year old girl with emerald green eyes and dark magenta hair, was at the third training ground to practice her weapon skills, since her ability at handling weapons were the worst in here entire class at the academy. She had just started in the academy not that long ago, but she was already at the bottom of her class. She tried to hit the targets with her kunais as she jumped from side to side while aiming, but she tripped over a stone and fell to the ground, hitting the grass with her face first. "Ow…" She mumbled to herself as she sat up and rubbed her forehead.

"You're so clumsy. You are never going to be a great ninja!"

She looked around with a few tears in her eyes when she heard a familiar voice. She blinked when she saw the silver haired, masked boy, named Kakashi, by a nearby tree. Yuko sniffed a bit and rubbed the dirt off of her cheeks. "Shut up Kakashi! Why are you always so mean to me?" She asked frustrated, not understanding why he would always tease her about her abilities.

Kakashi shrugged slightly and folded his arms over his chest. "Hmm, maybe because you're making it too easy for me? And what I say is true. You're clumsy. You're about as talentless as Gai. The only difference between you two is that you can do ninjutsu and he can't." He said and scoffed.

Yuko got up from the ground and rubbed her eyes, trying to wipe away her tears and hide the fact that she was on the verge of crying. "You are such an idiot Kakashi!"

"And you are such a clumsy ninja." Kakashi said with a bored tone in his voice and placed his hands behind his head while leaning against the tree.

Yuko grabbed one of her kunais and threw it at him, but she missed him big time. The kunai hit the tree that stood next to the one Kakashi was leaning up against. She looked at Kakashi when she heard him scoff, like he was trying to hold back a laugh. "Seriously Yuko. You couldn't hit me even if you were as fast as Gai." He said somewhat mockingly.

She frowned at Kakashi's words and folded her arms over her chest. "Just you wait and see Kakashi! I will get better and prove to you that I'm a good ninja!" She said with a convincing and confident tone in her voice.

Kakashi looked at her with a raised eyebrow and shook his head a bit. "You're too confident for your own good Yuko. You show no talent of being a ninja. Both of your parents are retired ninjas, and they're still in their twenties. The ninja life must have been too difficult for them to handle, so now they own a weapon and herb shop."

"So what if my parents aren't ninjas? They're good people! And even though they aren't ninjas it doesn't mean that I can't become one!" Yuko said and looked at Kakashi with an angry frown. Her parents owned a shop where they sell all kinds of weapons, tools and herbs. The name of the shop is 'Tohiro weapons and herbs'. It is named after her father's surname, which is Tohiro. Her parents are not ninjas anymore, but her father still sometimes uses the medical jutsus he used when he was an active ninja. He used to be a medical ninja. He has promised Yuko that he would teach her some of the techniques when she got older.

Kakashi sighed and walked over to Yuko. "No matter how many weapons you try from your father's shop, you will never be good at using them. You've been training with your weapons for how many times now? I know that you are often here to train how to use your kunais and shurikens, and Gai, Kotetsu and Izumo are sometimes training with you, but you don't show any signs of improvement. You just don't have what it takes to become a ninja." He said with a bored tone in his voice.

Yuko was getting fed up with Kakashi's endless criticizing and teasing of her and her ninja skills. She felt the tears fight their way to her eyes and she did her very best to hold them back. She did not want to give Kakashi that satisfaction of seeing her cry. "I'm only 5 years old! What do you expect from a 5 year old girl?!" She snapped at him through slightly gritted teeth and clenched her small fists to try and stand strong towards him.

"Yuko, I was 5 years old when I graduated from the academy as the top of my class. I became a chunin just a year later." Kakashi said and kept looking at her with that usual empty expression of his. Though, Yuko could sense a faint smirk play on his lips through that ridiculous mask he always wore. It annoyed her even more. "No one can be as perfect and skilled as you! Just because you graduated from the academy when you were 5 and became a chunin a year after, doesn't mean that everyone can do it!" She snapped at him once again and with a slightly raised voice this time.

Kakashi seemed like it was amusing him to see her this annoyed. He was pushing her limits like this on purpose. "You know Yuko. When you become 9 years old, like me, you will still be a clumsy ninja that can't hit a target with a kunai."

Yuko's eye twitched annoyed, but also because it was becoming difficult for her to hold back her tears. She turned around as a few tears began to run down her cheeks. She would not let Kakashi see her cry. She simply would not give him that satisfaction. "You are so mean Kakashi!" She said before she ran off to her home with tears flowing down her cheeks. She did not understand why Kakashi always was so mean to her. She knew that he was pretty ignorant and kind of mean towards everyone, but it felt like he was being more mean to her, than others. Once she got home she rushed through the front door and ran up the stairs, ran inside her room and threw herself on the bed with her face buried in the pillow.

Sachiko, Yuko's mother, had heard her daughter run through the house and into her room. She walked up the stairs and inside her daughter's room. "Yuko? Sweetie, are you okay? You ran through the house so fast that I didn't get to say hi to you." She said with a worried tone in her voice and sat down next to her daughter on the bed. She began to rub Yuko's back in a comforting way as she heard her sobbing. "Oh Yuko. What happened?" She asked with a more worried tone in her voice than before.

Yuko lifted her head a bit from the pillow and turned her head to look at her mother with red and teary eyes. Her vision was so blurry from all the tears that she could barely make out her mother's face. "K-Kakashi happened..." She said and sniffed.

"Oh dear. What did Kakashi do this time?" She asked with a concerned voice, yet she sounded like she was mad. She was not mad at her daughter, but at Kakashi. He had made Yuko upset and cry many times now.

Yuko wiped away the tears and sat up in the bed. "H-he told me that no matter what I do, I will always be a clumsy ninja… He basically told me that I have no talent in ninja arts." She said and sniffed again. She knew that her skills as a ninja were not the best. She was at the bottom of her class, but she really did her very best to become better and to understand what she was being taught at the academy.

Sachiko pulled her daughter closer for a loving and comforting hug while she gently rubbed her back. "Don't listen to him dear. He is a kid who has no parents to tell him the differences between right or wrong. Even though it should be common sense not to treat others like that. It's not your fault that the ninja arts doesn't come easy to you. We're all different in how we learn things." She said and kissed Yuko's forehead gently.

"I-I know mom, but it just hurts so much when he tell me those things. It's not funny anymore." She said as she slowly pulled away from her mother's warm and comforting hug, who then placed her hand on Yuko's cheek and looked into her eyes. "Listen to me sweetie. You are a great ninja. You are only 5 years old and no one expect of you to be as good as him, okay? You develop in another pace than he does and that is okay. Don't rush yourself just to prove him wrong about your abilities." She said and held Yuko's hand. "We are moving to Kumogakure tomorrow, so you won't have to worry about Kakashi ever again. You're going to get some new friends and forget all about him, okay?" She said and smiled kindly at her daughter while giving her hand a light squeeze.

Yuko nodded lightly and hugged her mother again. She always knew how to comfort her and she loved that about her mother. Just three weeks ago her parents told her that they were moving to Kumogakure. Their reasoning for moving, was that another weapon shop had opened just a few streets away from theirs, and the new weapon shop had lower prices on their weapons. Because of that, Yuko's parents' were losing customers. They had heard from a friend that the prices on weapons in Kumogakure were higher than the prices her parents had, which is why they had decided to move to Kumogakure. of course, they needed the permission to move to a new village from the Hokage and the Raikage.

The front door opened and in stepped Yuko's father, Daichi. "Yuko, Sachiko, I'm home!" He shouted from the front door and closed the door behind him while stepping out of his shoes.

Yuko let go of her mother and got up got up from the bed, ran down the stairs and hugged her father tightly while burying her face into his stomach.

"Hi there sweetheart." Daichi said with a smile and ruffled his daughter's hair a bit, even though he knew that she did not like that. "Are you ready to move tomorrow Yuko?" He asked as he picked her up and held her close to him.

Yuko held onto him tightly and nodded lightly while looking at him. "Yes I am daddy." She said and sniffed a bit. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were tear stained.

Daichi noticed the tear stained cheeks on his daughter's face and figured out right away what had happened, but smiled warmly at her and kissed her forehead. "Don't worry sweetheart. You are never going to see that Kakashi kid again." He said and rubbed her back gently to comfort her.

Sachiko came downstairs and looked at Daichi with a loving smile. "Welcome home dear." She said and walked inside the kitchen, where she had been preparing the ramen she had bought from Ichiraku's ramen shop just before Yuko came home. All of their stuff was packed into boxes, so they had nothing to cook in.

Daichi smiled and followed his wife to the kitchen while carrying Yuko. He kissed her head before placing her on her chair by the table while his wife placed the bowls with ramen on the table. Both of them sat down and they began to eat. No one said a thing the first few minutes, but then Sachiko broke the silence. "Did you finish packing the last things at the store dear? We're leaving tomorrow after all." She said and looked at her husband.

Daichi looked at her and nodded. "Yes I did. I loaded the last boxes in the moving carriage. The carriage is on its way to Kumogakure as we speak." He said with a smile.

Yuko finished eating her ramen quite fast and looked at her parents. "Thank you for the meal. I'll take a shower and go to bed. I'm tired." She said as she got up from the chair and left the kitchen. She walked upstairs and entered her room, grabbed her pajamas and went to the bathroom to take a shower to wash off the rest of the dirt from her impact with the ground earlier. She turned on the water in the shower and undressed while the water was heating up. She stepped into the shower once the water was not cold anymore and enjoyed the feeling of the water hitting her skin as it washed away the dirt. She imagined how it also washed away all the mean things Kakashi had ever said to her. She was going to leave the village, so she did not want to bring with her all of the negative things that had happened to her while living in Konoha. She was going to get a new start, meet new people and best of all, never see Kakashi ever again. As She finished the shower after rinsing her hair and body with soap, She dried off and put on her pajamas. She walked inside her room and laid down on her bed, snuggled under the blanket and closed her eyes.

Yuko was by Konoha's main gate, sitting inside the carriage that was going to take her and her parents to Kumogakure. She was waiting for her father to arrive. He had something he had to do in the last minute before they could leave, and Yuko were deep into her thoughts about what it could be, when her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice yelling out her name in the distance. "Yuuuukooo-chaaan~!"

Yuko stuck her head out of the carriage and looked towards the village. She sweat dropped a bit when she saw the always energetic Gai running for full speed towards the carriage. She got out of the carriage just as he reached it and looked at him with a smile. "Hi Gai. You seem like you are in a hurry."

Gai leaned forward as he caught his breath after running so fast. When he caught his breath he looked at Yuko with tears streaming down his cheeks and hugged her tightly. "Yuko-chan~! Why are you leaving?!" He asked while sobbing and kept hugging her tight, almost breaking her back, ribs and spine.

"G-Gai! A little too tight!" Yuko manage to breath out and gasped for her breath when he loosened his hug. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back. "My parents are moving the shop to Kumogakure. It's not my decision to move."

Gai pulled away from the hug and looked at Yuko with tear filled eyes. "But- But you can't leave Konoha. This is your home~" He said while whining and had a begging look in his eyes. He did not want her to leave. He was having fun when the two of them would train together, or just hang out.

Yuko smiled lightly and flattened out the wrinkles on her clothes that had formed after Gai's bone crushing hug. "I'm sorry Gai, but we're moving and there's nothing I can do about it. I wish I could stay, but I can't." She said and patted his shoulder in a comforting way.

"So the rumors are true. The weapon and herb shop is moving to another village." A way too familiar voice said, making Yuko's eye twitch a bit from annoyance. She looked up to see Kakashi sitting in the tree next to the carriage, and just his presence annoyed her. She knew that he was only there to say something mean to her before she left the village, so she clenched a fist and tried to remain calm. "Why are you here, Kakashi?" She asked annoyed.

"What do you think I'm doing here? I came to say goodbye, of course. And I wanted to see the clumsy ninja one last time." Kakashi answered and jumped down from the tree, landing in front of Yuko, who just huffed at him and looked away from him while folding her arms over her chest. "Well, now you saw me. Say goodbye so you can leave again."

"Hey, calm down now. When you are gone, who am I supposed to push into becoming better? Sure, there's the crybaby over there," Kakashi said and pointed at Gai. "But he's no fun to tease." He stated and chuckled lightly.

Yuko frowned and turned her head to look at Kakashi and pushed him away from her, making him stumble backwards and land on his butt as he fell. She would not give him the satisfaction to see her cry before she left the village. "You're an idiot Kakashi!" She said and saw her father coming towards the carriage. She walked over to Gai, who had stepped away after I pushed Kakashi, and hugged him. "Goodbye Gai. I will miss you." She let go of him again walked past Kakashi, who was still sitting on his butt on the ground. "I will do anything to forget about you!" She snapped at him while sending him a glare, and got back in the carriage as her father came back.

"Ouch. That one hurt." Kakashi said sarcastically as he got up from the ground and dusted the dirt off of his clothes.

Yuko just ignored him and felt the carriage move after her father had entered it. She looked out from the carriage after a little while and looked back towards the village. Both Kakashi and Gai were still there. Gai was crying hard as he watched the carriage leave with his friend and Kakashi seemed to be scolding him or something.

Sachiko placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder, making her look at her smiling face. "Everything is going to be better now dear, okay? We're going to start a new life."

Yuko nodded agreeing and smiled a bit. "I know mom… I know." She rested her head against the carriage as she closed her eyes to get some sleep. While she was drifting into sleep, she thought about how much she wanted to forget about Kakashi, and thought of the new life she was going to start in Kumogakure along with her parents.


	2. Returning to Konoha

_June 4th_

Twenty years has passed and Yuko has been living in Kumogakure ever since she moved away from Konoha when she was 5 years old, but she recently decided to move back to the village where she was born and lived the first few years of her childhood. She made the decision about three weeks ago. Of course she had been thinking about it a lot in the beginning and thought about the pros and cons about moving back, and the pros weighted more than the cons.

After she made her decision she went to discuss it with the Raikage, since a ninja cannot just move from one village to another without permission from both of the Kages. Those who move without permission from the Kage in the village they live in, will be listed as missing nins and will be haunted by the ANBU from the village they lived in. The Raikage had exchanged letters with the Hokage for a little over a week and both of them gave Yuko permission to move from Kumogakure to Konoha. It took Yuko some time to convince the Raikage to let her go before he started to exchange letters with the Hokage.

The fourth Raikage and the third Raikage, who was Raikage when Yuko and her parents moved to Kumogakure, were always keeping an eye on the Tohiro family. The third Raikage was always suspicious of the family's decision to move to Kumogakure. He knew that they moved to the village because of their business, but he also knew that Daichi and Sachiko were retired ninjas, so he suspected that they were secretly spies for Konoha. The third shinobi world war started barely two months after the Tohiro family had moved to Kumogakure, and that made the third Raikage be even more suspicious about the family. He had denied them to make any contact with people from outside the village, and since Daichi and Sachiko still had a few friends in Konoha, he would confiscated all letters to the family and read them through himself first, to make sure that there were not any hidden messages in them. He would inspect their shop daily for anything suspicious and he had ANBU teams to watch them daily. He even had an ANBU follow Yuko when she went to the academy and home again.

After the third Raikage died and his son took over as the fourth Raikage, the inspections continued and the ANBU teams continued watching them, even after the war ended, but not on a daily basis. The fourth Raikage knew of his father's suspicion of the Tohiro family and understood his reasoning for being suspicious of them, but since nothing had happened around the family during, or after the way, and they did not protest about the inspection, confiscation of their letters or the ANBU's watching them, he got less suspicious of them and only ordered the ANBU to watch them once a week for about half a year. When the Tohiro family had finally gained the Raikage's trust, or at least some of it, after the fourth Raikage had been Raikage for almost a year, he stopped the inspections and ordered the ANBU's not to watch them anymore. He would still confiscate letters to the family, since he wanted to keep his village safe and the Tohiro family was still outsiders in his eyes.

The day the Raikage gave Yuko the news that she could move back to Konoha, he had her knowledge about the village's confidential information sealed away. Yuko did not have many confidential information about the village though, since the Raikage was cautious with her as she grew up, even after she became an ANBU the Raikage would not let her in on super confidential meetings. He would only send her on ANBU missions. After the Raikage had sealed away the little information about the village Yuko had, she gave him her forehead protector, got her journal with all of her information that the Hokage would need, and went home to pack her stuff. She had put her stuff into sealing scrolls to save money on moving carriages.

It is June 4th and Yuko had been travelling towards Konoha for three days now and she was finally getting closer to the village. She was already missing Kumogakure and began to think back on the life she had there. Despite the surveillance and the mistrust from the third Raikage and the mistrust from the fourth Raikage, she had a pretty good life in Kumogakure. She got new friends at her age in the academy, but she also befriended a few kids who were a little older than herself. Her two best friends were Darui and Shii. After the war had ended and the Raikage cleared the Tohiro family from suspicion of being spies, Darui and Shii would help Yuko train and practice her weapon skills, including some of her ninjutsu and taijutsu, which resulted in that she graduated from the academy when she was 10 years old, which was sooner than Yuko and her parents had expected, since her ninja skills were poor.

When Yuko was 11 years old, she lost her parents. They were killed by ninja thieves, who wanted to rob the store from money, herbs and weapons. Her father was stupid and stubborn, so he tried to fight back along with Sachiko, but since the two of them had not done anything ninja related since before Yuko was born, they were rusty in their ninja skills and that cost them their life. After Yuko's parents died, her sensei, Makoto, had volunteered to take Yuko in and raise her. Short after she had volunteered to take care of Yuko, the Raikage ordered Makoto to report it to him if there were any major changes in Yuko's behavior, other than the usual grief and sadness anyone would feel after losing a loved one.

Other than training her ninjutsus, Yuko also trained hard to learn the few healing techniques her father got to show her before he died, and she spent just as much time on training her weapon techniques. She could call herself a weapon expert and specialist when she was 19 years old. She graduated the academy and became a genin when she was 10 years old, was promoted to chunin when she was 14, promoted to jonin when she was 20 and was shortly in the ANBU when she was 23 years old, but decided to leave a year later, because she did not feel comfortable in the ANBU and because of her restrictions within the ANBU.

A smile spread across Yuko's lips when she could see the main gate of Konoha in the distance getting closer and closer. She was still thinking about why she decided to move back, since she was already missing Kumogakure, but the main reason for her decision was her old friends, and the fact that Konoha is the village she was born in. Also, the memory of her parents being dead haunted her every day and even though twelve years had passed since then, she still missed them greatly. After all, she was still only a child when they died, so she hoped that moving to another village would help on not thinking too much of her parents.

Yuko picked up her pace and began to run instead of walking, as she was not able to wait any longer to get back. She came closer and closer to the main gate and reached it within a few minutes. She stopped up and looked at the gate as it was in front of her. The last time she saw the main gate of Konoha was when she left the village twenty years ago. She had been in the village once on a short delivery mission a few years ago, but she used another entrance back then and did not think much about that it was the village she was born in and moved away from. Maybe it was different now, because she was moving back.

Yuko took a deep, deep breath before she took the first step inside the village and looked around. The area around the main gate looked the same as it did when she lived there. She took a few more steps, but stopped up when someone spoke up.

"Hey you there! State your name and business in Konoha."

Yuko turned her head to the left and saw two male ninjas sitting in the booth by the main gate. She walked over to the booth and looked at the ninja who had spoken up. He was wearing his forehead protector like a bandana and his bangs were covering his right eye. The other ninja had half long spiky hair, a strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose and a light colored marking on his chin. Both of them seemed somewhat familiar to her.

The ninja looked up at her and cleared his throat before he repeating what he had just said. "State your name and business in Konohagakure."

Yuko smiled softly at him and tilted her head a bit to the side. "My name is Tohiro Yuko and I'm moving back to the village, after living in Kumogakure for years. I have the papers from the Raikage and the Hokage as proof." She said and reached into her backpack to grab the papers she had gotten from the Raikage before she left the village.

The two ninjas looked at her with a slightly raised eyebrow and watched her hand as she reached into her backpack. "Move back?" They asked in unison and looked at each other before once again looking at the woman in front of them. They were studying her with their eyes, trying to figure out if they knew her or had seen her before. "So you're an old resident of Konohagakure?" The ninja with the bandana asked.

Yuko nodded lightly and placed the papers from the two Kages in front of the ninja. She watched him as he read through the paper. "Yes I am. I lived here twenty years ago, but I moved away with my parents when they decided to move their store to another village." She said and blinked surprised when the guy with the bandage strip across his nose had gotten up from his chair and moved closer to her to get a closer look at her face. "Uhm, what are you looking at?" She asked slightly nervous and felt a little intimidated that he was that close to her face.

"Tell me more about the store your parents owned. What kind of store was it?" He asked and stayed close to her while still examining her face up close.

Yuko felt a little annoyed that he was so close to her, so she shoved her hand in his face and pushed him away from her, making him stumble back and sit on his chair again. "Sure, I'll tell you about the store, but don't get so close to me again. It's intimidating and annoying." She said and folded her arms over her chest. "My parents owned a shop where they sold weapons and herbs. The name of the shop was-..." She was cut off midsentence when the two male ninjas began to talk in unison again. "Tohiro weapons and herbs! You're their daughter Yuko!"


	3. Meeting the Hokage

Yuko blinked surprised at Izumo and Kotetsu's loud voices and at the fact that they knew who she was, since she did not remember them. "How do you know who I am?" She asked while looking at both of them with a raised eyebrow.

"Yuko, it's Izumo and Kotetsu. We would sometimes train with you when we weren't on missions, or training our own skills." The guy with the bandana said and smiled.

Yuko tilted her head a bit to the side and looked closely at both of them without getting closer to them, like the other guy did to her before. A soft smile spread across her lips as she recognized them. She could remember how they would help her train, although it did not help much on her poor skills back then. "I remember now! Izumo, you were always serious about helping me. Kotetsu, on the other hand, was more likely to joke around and not take the training seriously." She said and looked at Kotetsu with a raised eyebrow. "You're still the same, I assume."

Kotetsu sweat dropped. "Hey, Izumo seemed to always know what he was doing. It didn't seem like he needed any help, so I didn't want to interrupt." He said, trying to excuse himself for his laziness back then.

Izumo just shook his head at his partner and looked at Yuko. "Why did your parents decide to move the shop Yuko? You never told anyone about it, or said goodbye to anyone, other than Gai and Kakashi." He said and folded his arms over his chest. He obviously wanted an explanation from his old childhood friend.

Yuko tried not to twitch her eye when she heard that name of the guy who used to tease her about her poor skills as a ninja. "Well, the business wasn't going so well for my parents, because of a weapon shop that opened close to their shop. The other weapon shop had cheaper prices than my parents had, and they couldn't lower their prices, so it got difficult for them financial. They then decided to move the shop to Kumogakure, because they had heard that prices on weapons were higher there compared to the prices on the weapons they sold. Once they got permission from the Hokage and the Raikage to move, we packed everything and moved. I didn't want to tell anyone about it, because I didn't want to hear my friends tell me over and over how much they would miss me when I was gone. It would make it harder for me to move than it already was. I don't know how Gai and Kakashi found out about it, but they showed up by the main gate themselves a few minutes before the carriage took off." She said and rubbed the back of her head a bit. She did feel guilty that she never told her friends that she moved, but she would not be able to stand hearing them whine about it.

Izumo and Kotetsu both nodded understanding. "So, are you moving back to Konoha on your own? Or does your parents come by themselves another day?" Kotetsu asked curiously, since she had come alone.

Yuko shook her head and looked at him. "I'm moving here on my own. My parents were killed by ninja thieves when I was 11 years old. My father was being stubborn and stupid, and tried to fight back and of course my mom tried to fight them off as well, even though none of them had done any ninja related in years. Because of that, the thieves ended up killing both of them."

Izumo blinked surprised. "So you have been on your own ever since they died?" He asked and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"No. My sensei took me in and let me live with her. She was the one who told me about my parents' death. She was a nice woman and she became like a second mother to me after I moved in with her." Yuko said and moved her hair behind her ear.

Izumo and Kotetsu nodded understanding. "Nonetheless, it's good to see you again Yuko, and welcome back to Konoha." Izumo said and smiled.

"Thank you, it means a lot, but I have to go now. I need to announce my arrival to the Hokage and then I need to find a place to live." Yuko said with a smile and took the papers from the Raikage she had shown to Izumo. "By the way, who's the new Hokage?" She asked, since she had no idea who became Hokage after the third and fourth Hokage died. She had heard about their deaths, but never heard who had become Hokage after them.

"Ah, it's a woman named Tsunade. She can be somewhat... Intimidating, and she has a short temper. So be careful with what you say." Kotetsu said and sweat dropped a bit.

Yuko giggled lightly and nodded. "Okay, thanks. I'll see you two some other time." She said as she began to walk away from the booth.

"It was nice seeing you again Yuko. See you some other time." Izumo and Kotetsu said in unison and waved at her.

Yuko walked through the streets of Konoha as she headed towards the Hokage's office at the administrative division part of the academy. She was wondering if the Hokage was as intimidating as Kotetsu made her sound like. He did appear to be serious when he told her to be careful with what she said to the Hokage. A lot of memories from Yuko's childhood came back to her as she walked through the streets of Konoha. It felt all nostalgic to be back and she indeed loved it. The village did not seem to have changed much. She could recognize a lot of the shops and buildings she passed on her way, but she also noticed some new shops here and there.

She soon arrived at the academy and went to the administrative division where the Hokage's office was located. She stood in front of the door and took a deep breath before she knocked on the door with one hand while reaching for the papers from the Raikage with the other hand, waiting for a response.

"Enter." A strong and slightly intimidating female voice said from inside the office. Yuko was used to the loud and intimidating appearance of the Raikage, so she figured that the Hokage would not scare her. She grabbed the door handle, opened the door and walked inside the office. She looked over at the Hokage and had to admit that she actually looked somewhat intimidating. Not as much as the Raikage though, but she did feel a nervous shiver go down her spine when the Hokage looked up at her from the papers she was reading. It was like she was examining Yuko with her eyes and trying to read her. She really was as intimidating as Kotetsu made her appear to be, but it still did not beat the Raikage's intimidating appearance.

"Who are you and what can I do for you?" The Hokage asked with a strict tone in her voice and put down the pen she held in her right hand.

Yuko walked closer to the desk and bowed slightly when she stopped up. "Hello Hokage-sama. My name is Tohiro Yuko. I'm the ninja from Kumogakure who is to move back to Konohagakure. You have exchanged letters with the Raikage about the matter." She said and placed the Raikage's papers in front of the Hokage on the desk.

The Hokage was silent for a moment, but she took the papers that Yuko had put on her desk and scanned through them. She looked at the picture of Yuko that was attached to the papers and then looked at Yuko. "Can I see your journal with your information?" She asked and put down the papers from the Raikage.

"Yes, of course." Yuko reached into her backpack and grabbed the journal with her ninja information. The journal contained information about how many D, C, B, A and S rank missions she had completed, her ninja ran and some about her abilities. She put the journal on the desk and watched the Hokage as she took the journal and read through it. She looked up at Yuko from time to time as she read through her journal and eventually put it down again. "I see that you were a part of Kumogakure's ANBU team, but only for four year. Do you expect to become a part of Konoha's ANBU team as well?" She asked and looked at Yuko while leaning forward and folded her fingers in front of her face.

Yuko shook her head. "Not necessarily, no. If you do not wish to have me as a Konoha ANBU that is your decision. I was not part of the ANBU in Kumogakure long enough to determine if it was something I really wanted or not. Also, the Raikage didn't quite trust me, even though I lived there for so many years, so he wouldn't let me in on confidential meetings or missions. I was mostly hunting rouge ninjas from the village or escorting important people" She said with all honesty in her voice. It was only that kind of missions the Raikage would put her on when she entered the Kumogakure ANBU team.

The Hokage slightly leaned back in her office chair and folded her arms over her chest. "Why didn't the Raikage trust you? Did you give him any reason to not trust you?" She asked with all seriousness in her voice.

Yuko immediately shook her head. "No. When I moved to Kumogakure along with my parents when I was 5 years old, the third Raikage suspected my parents to be spies for Konoha, since they were retired ninjas. He had us under strict surveillance when the third shinobi world war broke out. Even after the third Raikage died and his son took over, the new Raikage would share the third's mistrust to me and my parents, but he loosened the surveillance on us. Even after the war ended he would always had some mistrust towards us. I don't blame him though. He needed to keep his village safe and my parents and I were outsiders."

The Hokage nodded lightly and looked at Yuko while she seemed to be deciding on what to do. "Hmm, I can understand the Raikage's reasoning why he didn't trust you and your family. I have to admit that even though you're an old resident of Konoha, I'm having some mistrust towards you. After all, you were still just a kid when you moved from Konoha and have been a ninja in Kumogakure up till now. You could secretly be a spy, just like the third Raikage suspected your parents to be. I won't put you under strict surveillance though, because that won't prove your innocence. Trust is something you earn. Once you prove to me that I can trust you, I'll make you an ANBU. I want to test your abilities, so be at the third training ground tomorrow at 10am sharp. I will bring some ninjas I want to help test your abilities." She said and sat up straight in her office chair again, putting the papers from the Raikage into Yuko's journal and put the journal away.

Yuko nodded understanding and smiled lightly. "I understand Hokage-sama. Thank you." She bowed slightly before she turned around and left the office. She did not like that the Hokage did not trust her, but she did not blame her. Just like the third Raikage's reasoning for not trusting her parents was understandable, the Hokage's reasoning for not trusting Yuko was understandable as well. She was used to the surveillance, and even though the Hokage said she would not put her under strict surveillance, Yuko had a thought that she would have the ANBU to watch her every now and then, just to be sure that she would not do anything suspicious. The last thing Yuko needed to do for the day was to find a house she could move into, so she was now searching for a realtor.


	4. The test

_June 5th_

Yuko had been staying the night at a hotel. She did find a house to buy when she found a realtor, after leaving the Hokage's office the day before, and to her luck it was her old childhood home, so she could not say no to buy the house, since it was filled with childhood memories. The realtor had told her that she would have the key ready for her when she would come and sign the papers the day after, which was now today.

Yuko put on the new ninja outfit she bought yesterday after looking for a house. Her new outfit consisted of a red top, a fishnet t-shirt, a black flat jacket, a pair of short black leggings and a skirt that was opened on both sides and connected by belts. She placed her weapon holster around her right thigh and looked at herself in the mirror that hung on the wall by the door. She smiled lightly, walked out of the hotel room and locked the door before leaving the hotel. She walked through the streets of Konoha as she headed for the third training ground, and looked around at the buildings and surroundings she passed on her way. It made her happy to see that the village had not changed much from when she lived there as a kid. There were more shops and buildings now compared to back then, but there were still the same amount of trees and bushes as there was when she was a little girl.

Yuko had reached the third training ground before she knew of it, and looked around to see if she could see Tsunade anywhere, but she could not spot her anywhere nearby and figured that she must have arrived early. She jumped up in a tree and sat down on a thick branch to wait for Tsunade and the other ninjas to arrive, but she did not get to sit in the tree for long before she heard Tsunade's voice from underneath her. "Where is she? I told her to be here by 10am, so she should be here by now!" The tone in Tsunade's voice sounded like she was annoyed.

Yuko looked down at Tsunade and the three ninjas she had brought with her. One of the three ninjas was a guy Yuko knew very well. He had the same black bowl cut hair, thick eyebrows and green jumpsuit as twenty years ago. It was Gai. She had no doubt that it was him. The other two ninjas were strangers to her. They were both females, but one of them seemed to be a teenager, whereas the other seemed to be older than Yuko. The teenager's eyes and hair was a dark brown color and she had her hair in Chinese-styled buns. The other female's eyes and hair was black and her hair reached her shoulders.

Yuko jumped down from the branch she was sitting on and landed in front of Tsunade and three ninjas. She waved lightly at them and smiled. "I'm right here, Tsunade-sama. I was sitting up in the tree and waiting for you." She said and rubbed the back of her head.

Tsunade looked at Yuko with a raised eyebrow and sighed. "Fine. Let's get to it. I'm going to put you through three different tests. I want to see your weapon skills, speed and how you combine your ninjutsu and taijutsu in battle. Your first test will be weapon skills and you are up against the village's best weapon user, Tenten. Both of you are going to hit five targets each. You have to hit them as precisely as possible and with as many weapon as possible. The targets are over there." Tsunade pointed towards the targets. There were five for Yuko and five for Tenten, so ten targets in total.

Yuko nodded understanding and looked at Tenten as she stepped forward. The two of them looked at each other for a brief moment before looking back at Tsunade as stepped back along with the two other ninjas. "Stand at least twenty meters from the targets and start when you are ready!"

Both Yuko and Tenten faced the targets and moved away until they were about twenty meters away from them. Yuko reached into her weapon holster for her kunais and began to throw them at the targets. When she had thrown the last kunai she reached for one of her scrolls, opened it and moved her palm along the back of it while channeling her chakra into the seals that was on the back of the scroll, making a lot of shurikens, kunais, sickles, daggers and katanas emerge from the scroll and hit the targets. When her scroll was emptied from all of its weapons, Yuko lowered her arms and looked at the targets, smiling satisfied as she saw all five targets were covered with her weapons. She looked over at Tenten's targets and her targets were covered in weapons as well. Tenten was good at handling her weapons and she had talent, Yuko could clearly see that. She figured that Tenten had been practicing her weapon skills for years and estimated her to be around 16 years old. She was impressed that Tenten showed such talent in her weapon skills at that age, since she was 19 before she mastered her weapon skills.

Tsunade stepped closer and looked at the targets from both Yuko and Tenten. "That's amazing. Well done. Your weapon skills appear to be at the same level as Tenten's. Gather your weapons and get ready for the next test." She said with a stern tone in her voice.

Yuko nodded lightly and walked over to the targets to gather her weapons. She placed her hand on a seal on the scroll and all of the weapons disappeared back inside the scroll, except the kunais and shurikens she had in her weapon holster. She pulled the kunais and shurikens out of the targets one by one and put them back her holster.

Tenten walked over to Yuko after she had gathered her own weapons, and looked at her with a cheery smile. "You were amazing. You must have trained hard to master your weapon skills." She said and put her scrolls away.

Yuko looked at Tenten nodded lightly at her statement. "Thank you, and yes I have. My sensei trained me hard every day until I could call myself a weapon expert and specialist. I would sometimes train with my teammates and some of my friends to try out some of the new weapons I had been taught to use." She said with a smile and walked over to Tsunade along with Tenten. "What is my next test Tsunade-sama?" She asked and looked at her, but glanced at the female ninja with the black hair as she ran to the other end of the third training ground.

Tsunade looked at Yuko and folded her arms over her chest. "Your next test will be speed. You are going to race against our fastest ninja, Gai. You are going to run from that spot." She said and pointed at a red flag. "And then run to the other end of the third training ground to the other red flag. There's about 1.000 meters to the red flag and my assistant, Shizune, will be there to keep track of your time." She explained and looked at Gai and Yuko.

Yuko nodded understanding and looked at Gai. This was indeed going to be interesting. The last time she saw Gai, his ninja skills were as bad as hers, but he could not use ninjutsu, and now he seemed to be the fastest ninja in Konoha. He had been training a lot and improved his skills, Yuko was sure of that. She walked to the starting point with Gai and smiled as she walked. "Hi Gai. How have you been?" She asked, hoping that he could recognize her.

Gai blinked and looked at Yuko with a slightly raised eyebrow as he moved closer to her while walking, to get a better look at her face, which made her sweat drop, because it annoyed her just as much when Kotetsu did it the day before. "Hmm. Do I, Mighty Gai, know you?" He asked while rubbing his chin as he thought about the woman in front of him could be. She seemed familiar to him, but he could not recognize her the slightest.

Yuko giggled lightly at his words and shrugged. "Maybe you do, maybe you don't." She said and smiled. He sure had not changed a bit, he was still the same and that made her happy to see. Although, she felt a little disappointed that he could not recognize her, since they used to hang out a lot when she lived in the village and they were close friends, but it was still fun to see that he appeared to be thinking hard of where he had seen her before.

Tsunade looked at Yuko and Gai as they had reached the starting point and cleared her throat to get their attention. She motioned for the two of them to take their positions to get ready. Once they were ready she began to count down. "3... 2... 1... Run!" She shouted and folded her arms over her chest.

Gai immediately sprinted off towards the flag at the other end of the third training ground, leaving a trail of dust behind him, which made Yuko blink to prevent getting the dust in her eyes. She was indeed surprised by his high speed, but she had no time to be impressed and ran off to try and catch up to him. She could see Gai ahead of her and sped up to try and at least get up next to him. She realized that she could not outrun him at this point, but hoped that she could at least get up next to him and finish at the same time. The moment Gai could see Yuko catching up to him, he sped up as well and got even further ahead of her. He had to give it his all, even though it was just a test. It would not be a challenge for the new female ninja if he let her catch up to him that easy.

Yuko kept the same speed, since she could not run any faster than she already was, and she had no chance to catch up to Gai at this point. He was simply way too fast for her. Once she reached the red flag the Hokage's assistant, Shizune, who was there to take their time, stopped the stopwatch and looked at the time. "One minute and ten seconds."

Yuko nodded lightly and felt satisfied with her result of the speed test. Her speed was about average and she knew her speed limit, so she was very satisfied. She looked at Gai while panting lightly and smiled. "You're faster than I thought you were. How did you become so fast?" She asked and headed back to Tsunade along with Gai and Shizune.

Gai chuckled lightly and gave Yuko a thumbs up while giving her a flashy smile. "I gained my speed through a lot of training and being youthful! If you train more you will maybe be just as fast as me one day."

Yuko nodded lightly and sweat dropped a bit from Gai's silliness. He had definitely not changed a bit and that made Yuko happy to see her old friend being the same silly person he was as back then. "Thank you for the advice." She smiled lightly at him.

Tsunade looked at three of them as they got back and immediately looked at her Shizune. "What are their times?" She asked and folded her arms over her chest.

Shizune looked at her papers where she had written down the times. "Gai's time is forty-seven seconds and the new ninja's time is one minute and ten seconds." She said and looked at Tsunade, who just nodded lightly while looking at Yuko. "Not bad. That's a good time. Let's move on to the last test, which is to test your ninjutsu and taijutsu skills. Your opponent is going to be-…" She was cut off when a relatively tall male shinobi with silver spiky hair appeared. "I'll be her opponent." He had a deep voice, which had a slightly bored undertone.


	5. First meeting in years

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire release: Great fireball technique)  
> \- Suiton: Suihachi (Water release: Water Bowl)  
> \- Shinkuken (Vacuum sword)  
> \- Suiton: Suijun (Water release: Water shield)

Yuko's eyes widened slightly as the male ninja appeared before her. She could recognize him at any time because of his spiky silver hair and the ridiculous mask, which covered his mouth and nose. There was no mistake about who he was. It was Hatake Kakashi. He looked like himself. The only difference was that he had his forehead protector to cover he left eye. She was not pleased to see Kakashi's face again, or at least what of it that she could see.

Tsunade looked at Kakashi and arched her eyebrow a bit at him. "Kakashi! You're late!" She shouted at him and she did not look amused that he was late. She knew that he would come up with some lame excuse for being late.

"Yes, I apologize for that, Tsunade-sama. I had to help an old lady with her groceries." Kakashi said and smiled lightly behind his mask. He did not appear to be the slightest sorry about being late for the test though.

Tsunade grunted a bit and rolled her eyes. "Stop with that nonsense Kakashi! You were supposed to be here at 10! Get ready!" She said with a slightly raised voice. It was obvious that she was not pleased with Kakashi showing up late for the test.

Kakashi gave a single not and decided not to say another word about the matter, since he knew that it would just anger the Hokage. He was about to walk over to Yuko to get ready, but he stopped in his tracks when she suddenly spoke up with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice. "Is it really necessary that he's my opponent?! Can't it be someone else?" Yuko asked as she looked at Kakashi and then at Tsunade. She was aware that she was acting a bit like a kid for even asking of such a request, but she was in her right to ask of that, since Kakashi used to be so mean to her when they were kids. Although she would love to kick his ass as punishment for all of the teasing he put her through.

Kakashi looked at the magenta haired female in front of him with a raised eyebrow and stepped closer to her as he examined her face. "Hmm, do I know you?" He asked and looked her up and down while rubbing his chin a bit.

Yuko frowned at him when he had suddenly stepped closer to her and was now almost all up in her face. It annoyed her when both Kotetsu and Gai did it, but it just pissed her off that Kakashi did it. She shoved her hand in his face and pushing him away from her while taking a step back. "Don't get so close to me! It's inappropriate! And maybe you do know me, maybe you don't." She said with an annoyed tone in her voice.

Kakashi rubbed the tip of his nose a bit, since Yuko had hit his face with some force when she shoved her hand into his face to push him away from her. "You're being quite hostile, don't you think? Who are you?" He asked and folded his arms over his chest.

Yuko's eye twitched annoyed at how cocky he appeared. She turned around to avoid looking at him and folded her arms over her chest. "If you don't recognize me on your own I won't bother telling you who I am." She said and huffed.

"Fine by me. I'm not forcing you to tell me who you are anyways. I'm not interested in meeting new people. I'm only here to test you for Tsunade." Kakashi said and shrugged a bit.

Tsunade was getting pretty annoyed as Kakashi and Yuko were arguing with each other. "Stop it you two! Get ready to fight!" She shouted at them with an annoyed tone in her voice. She sounded more annoyed about their arguing than Yuko was by seeing Kakashi again.

"Fine!" Yuko grunted a bit annoyed as she took a few steps away from Kakashi and took a fighting stance. She was not pleased that at all that it was Kakashi she was going to fight against.

Tsunade watched as both of them get ready for the test. "Remember to use both ninjutsu and taijutsu in this test. You are also allowed to use your weapons. Don't hold back and give it your all. Ready... Fight!"

Even though it was just a test to see Yuko's abilities and not a real fight, Kakashi had decided not to show any mercy at all. He immediately charged towards Yuko when Tsunade had told them to start the fight, and aimed a punch for Yuko's stomach.

Yuko quickly dodged his punch and aimed a high kick for Kakashi's head, but he squatted down to dodge her kick. He grabbed around her ankle and pulled in her foot, making her fall onto her back. Yuko quickly rolled to the side, before Kakashi got the chance to punch her, and pushed herself back up at the same time he got up.

Kakashi grabbed two kunais from his weapon holster and threw one of them at her, but she quickly grabbed her katana, which was placed by her hip, and deflected his kunai just in time, but the kunai was thrown at her to distract her. While Yuko was focused on deflecting the kunai, Kakashi had made a huge fireball, which was heading straight towards her. Yuko quickly made a hand seal and stretched her arm out towards the fire ball. "Suiton: Suihachi!" A jet of water emitted from her palm and hit the fireball, making it burn out. The impact from the water and the fire had created a thick fog, which surrounded the two fighting ninjas and a good ten meters around them as well.

Yuko held her katana and tried to figure out where Kakashi was and where he would attack from, but she could not sense him around her. She heard the sound of a kunai piercing through the air and immediately raised her katana, deflected the kunai and jumped out of the fog. She looked at the large fog cloud, but it was impossible to see anything inside of it. "Shinkuken!" She raised her katana and swung it in the direction of the fog, releasing a gust of wind from her katana that blew away the fog. She blinked surprised when the fog had cleared up and saw that Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. She began to look around for him in the trees, but felt something from underneath her and jumped back just as Kakashi's hand emerged from the ground where she had just been.

Kakashi came up from the ground and looked over at Yuko while dusting some dirt off of his shoulder. "You did well on spotting where I was. But you overlooked something." He said and grabbed a kunai from his weapon holster.

Yuko raised her eyebrow a bit at his words. "Oh really? What did I overlook?" She asked and raised her katana to do a wind jutsu, but froze when she felt something sharp press against her back. She glanced back and saw Kakashi behind her, holding a kunai against her back. The first thing she thought when she saw the second Kakashi was that one of them were a shadow clone and she was right. When she looked back at the Kakashi in front of her, he just turned into smoke.

Kakashi chuckled lightly and kept pressing the kunai against my back. "You were too focused on finding out where I was and didn't sense the real me after my clone emerged from the ground. Did you even think about that the fog could be used to more than just hide your presence?" He asked and made a hand seal for a jutsu.

Yuko just frowned annoyed at Kakashi's words, as she felt like he was just mocking her with his words and being cocky again. The frown on her face quickly disappeared when she sensed the amount of chakra that was in that jutsu he was doing and saw the lightning sparks that surrounded his hand. Yuko immediately stepped away from him to avoid getting hit by that jutsu and did the hand seals for 'Suiton: Suijun' to make a shield against Kakashi's jutsu, but before she got to finish making the hand seal Kakashi was charging towards her with the jutsu. She was taken off guard when he undid the jutsu before he got too close to her and just punched her hard in her stomach, making her stumble backwards and fall onto her butt.

Kakashi slipped his hands in his pockets and walked towards her. "Your counterattacks are good, your taijutsu is good, and so is your jutsus. But it seems like you lack some concentration when it comes to sensing your opponent when you can't use your eyes and you panic when you're in a tough situation. If I had hit you with that lightning jutsu and you had made your water shield, you could have ended up frying yourself. You do know that lightning and water jutsus don't go well together, right? You remind me a bit of a friend I had many years ago, although her skills were quite poor. I sometimes wonder if she ever graduated from the academy and if she did what rank she would have today." He said and smiled a bit behind his mask while reaching his hand out towards Yuko, offering to help her up from the ground.

Kakashi's words had pissed Yuko off. He had no right to call her a friend after all the teasing he put her through and all the mean things he said to her. She took a hold of his hand, but she did not let him pull her up from the ground. Instead of him pulling her up from the ground, she pulled him onto the ground and quickly sat on his back while pulling both of his hands onto his back and held them there. She leaned down to his ear and whispered. "It's not nice to talk bad about others, clumsy ass."

Kakashi's uncovered eye widened at Yuko's words and he immediately glanced back at her, who was still sitting on his back. He recognized those words, because he used to use those exact words towards an old friend who moved away from the village years ago. The female, who was sitting on his back, could not be that exact same ninja. Or could it be her?

Yuko huffed at him as she let go of his hands again and got off of his back. She picked up her katana, took a few steps away from Kakashi and looked at Tsunade. "I'm sorry Tsunade-sama, but I'll take my leave now. I honestly can't stand being in his presence any longer. I'll come to your office tomorrow for your evaluation." She said and disappeared before Tsunade had the chance to stop her. Yuko appeared by the hotel she had been staying at since yesterday and went inside. She wanted to grab the few things she had in her rented room and go to the realtor to sign the papers on the house, so that she could go home and just forget about what just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire release: Great fireball technique)  
> \- Suiton: Suihachi (Water release: Water Bowl)  
> \- Shinkuken (Vacuum sword)  
> \- Suiton: Suijun (Water release: Water shield)


	6. Yuko? Is it really you?

_June 6th_

It was the day after Tsunade had put Yuko through the test of her abilities and Yuko had just left her 'new' home, wearing her ninja outfit and was on her way to Tsunade's office to get her evaluation. She had a feeling that Tsunade might be mad at her for leaving the third training ground so suddenly after her fight with Kakashi ended, but she could not stand to see Kakashi's face after he referred to her as an old friend. It had really pissed her off, since it was nothing like that at all. At the same time she was wondering exactly why Tsunade had wanted to test her abilities in the first place. All of her stats, abilities and other info were in the journal she had given to her two days before, when she arrived in the village. She suspected that Tsunade had tested her to check if the info in her journal was correct, or to see just what she could do, in case she suspected Yuko for being a spy and would lock her away in jail. Yuko did not like to think that, that was the reason why Tsunade had tested her, since she was not a spy, but she could not really blame her for thinking like that, if that was the reason behind the test. After all, as the Hokage of Konohagakure, Tsunade just wants to keep her village safe, just like the Raikage wanted to keep Kumogakure safe when he put Yuko and her parents through the strict surveillance when they arrived in the village.

Yuko arrived at Tsunade's office and knocked on the door. While she waited for a response, she was mentally preparing herself to be scolded and possibly yelled at. She opened the door and stepped inside the office once she heard Tsunade's slightly annoyed voice tell her to enter. She looked over at Tsunade and swallowed hard when she could see the mad look on the Hokage's face, even though she had her hands folded in front of her face. Yuko walked over to the desk and felt a bit nervous. If there was something she had learned from the Raikage, it was to never piss off a short tempered and hot headed Kage.

"Yuko." Tsunade said short and sharp as she looked at her with narrowed eyes and furrowed eyebrows. "Your test results yesterday turned out as I expected. Your ninja skills are great, especially your weapon skills, but you did seem to lose your concentration a bit during the fight with Kakashi. Explain. Also, don't you think it was somewhat of an unprofessional way you disappeared after the test?" She asked and arched her eyebrow at me.

Yuko sweat dropped a bit and nodded lightly. "I do. Kakashi had just pissed me off and I couldn't stand his presence any longer, which is also why I lost my concentration during our fight. I know it's not a reason to lose my concentration, or act the way I did and I sincerely apologize for that."

Tsunade nodded lightly and removed her hands from in front of her face. "Do you have some kind of past with Kakashi? You seem like you know each other and since you used to live here when you were a child it's not unlikely that the two of you had bumped into each other a few times." She said and leaned back in her chair.

Yuko rubbed the back of my head and nodded lightly again. "We kind of do, yeah. I guess you could say that Kakashi was my childhood tease when I lived here and that I haven't forgiven him for what he did to me." She said with all honesty as she did not want to lie to the Hokage, so she had to tell her the truth. If she wanted to prove to Tsunade that she could trust her there were no such thing as lying.

"Hmm, I see. If you can't forgive him for whatever it was he put you through, you have to forget about it. You're a Konoha ninja now and the possibility that the two of you will end up on a mission together is much likely to happen. You can't let your feelings get in the way of your missions. Understood?" Tsunade said with a strict tone in her voice.

Yuko nodded lightly and bowed her head a bit. "Yes, I understand Hokage-sama." She said and looked at Tsunade again. She knew that it would be difficult for her to just forget what Kakashi had done to her in the past, but she had to try. Her sensei, Makoto, had always taught her not to live in the past, but in the present. She knew it would be a problem if she was put on a mission with Kakashi and it ended badly because she could not let go of her negative feelings towards him.

Tsunade nodded and placed her hands on the desk. "Good. I've decided that your skills are acceptable as an ANBU, but I won't make you an ANBU just yet. I want to see your development as a Konoha ninja before I make that decision and I want to be sure that I can trust you." She said and reached into the drawer in her desk and placed a forehead protector on the desk. "This is your forehead protector. You're dismissed."

Yuko nodded lightly and took the forehead protector. She looked at it with a smile for a few seconds before she bowed lightly. "Thank you so much, Hokage-sama. This means so much to me." She said before walking out of Tsunade's office and left the building. She looked at the forehead protector proudly and tied it around her left thigh, where she used to have her Kumogakure forehead protector as well. It was now official. She was once again a Konoha resident and a Konoha ninja. It made her happy to be home in the village she was born in and to be a ninja in the village as well. She had no time to be lazing around. Now when she had not had the time to do any training, since she left Kumogakure, she decided that it would be the perfect time to do it now. She had nothing else to do at the moment anyways, so she decided to go to the third training ground to do some training. While she was walking she began to think of Kumogakure and if her friends there were missing her or not. It had only been five days since she left Kumo and she was already missing it there. She did not regret moving back to Konoha, not at all. She was convinced that she chose the right decision when she decided to move back, but she was worried about her sensei, since she was in a bad condition with her health when she left. Makoto had told Yuko not to stay in Kumogakure because of her and managed to convince her to move no matter how her health situation was, since she had her husband to look after her.

Once Yuko arrived at the third training ground the first thing she heard was some yelling and cursing nearby, so she headed to where the yelling was coming from to see what was going on. She jumped into a tree close to where the ruckus was and concealed her chakra, so that she would not be spotted. She looked down and saw a boy with yellow spiky hair and whiskers on his cheeks, a girl with light pink hair, a boy with flat black hair, and much to Yuko's annoyance Kakashi was there too. The girl with the pink hair was shaking the life out of the boy with the whiskers, while the boy with the flat black hair was just looking at them with a wry smile.

"Sakura, will you please calm down so we can train. We don't have time for this nonsense." Kakashi said as he sighed and rubbed his forehead. It was starting to get on his nervous how Sakura would get mad at Naruto and end up injuring him.

Yuko looked at Kakashi when he spoke up and watched him for a bit. He looked so serious about the training, which he used to be when they were kids. He had not changed one bit about his seriousness of training, but something that surprised her was that he was going to train with the three teenagers, because he would usually only train by himself. At least that was how Yuko remembered Kakashi, so he had to be the three teens' sensei. Yuko sat down on the branch she was standing on and sat in a comfy position. She watched them as the girl had stopped shaking the boy with the whiskers and watched Kakashi when he showed them some weapon techniques to train their weapon skills. Yuko shook her head at his methods and moved her hair behind her ear. If he wants their weapon skills to be better he should train them harder and use some more challenging methods. Simply throwing kunais and shurikens at the targets will not improve their skills. Of course, it will make them better at hitting their enemy, but if they want to be better Kakashi should be using them some other techniques. She decided to interrupt their training and stood up on the branch again. She grabbed a kunai from her weapon holster and purposely threw it so it would land on the ground in front of Kakashi, which made him turn around immediately and held his kunai tightly in his hand while looking in the direction the kunai had come from. "Who's there?" He asked.

Yuko smiled a bit as she jumped down from the tree and looked at Kakashi and his students. "Oh no one special, just a stranger passing by." She said and folded her arms over her chest.

"Kakashi-sensei, who's that?" The boy with the whiskers asked Kakashi while looking at the magenta haired female, who had appeared before them, with a confused look on his face.

Kakashi shrugged lightly and kept looking at the female. "Well, I'm not quite sure myself Naruto. I was testing her ninja skills yesterday for Tsunade-sama. I think she's an outsider who has taken residence here in Konoha." He said and observed the female in front of him closely.

"Well, I sure am a Konoha ninja." Yuko said and pointed at the forehead protector around her left thigh before she walked over to the kunai she had thrown, picked it up from the ground and placed it in her weapon holster on her other thigh. She looked at Kakashi and his students and folded her arms over her chest. "How come you are teaching your students such simple weapon techniques? If you want to improve their skills and make them better at hitting their target, you should give them something more challenging instead. Unless you're just trying to keep them at the same level of weapon handling. Clumsy ass." She said and held back the smirk that so eagerly wanted to spread across her lips. She was hoping that he would recognize the words just like he did the other day.

Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly at Yuko's words. He had indeed recognized the words, just like he did the day before when he fought her, but he could not believe that he had heard those words. Was this woman in front of him the girl he used to tease about her poor ninja skills when he was a pre-teen? It could not be a coincidence. It had to be her.

"Uhm, Kakashi-sensei, are you okay?" The boy with the whiskers asked when he saw the slightly shocked expression in Kakashi's eye and waved his hand in front of his face.

Yuko giggled a bit and walked over to Kakashi. She placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a light push, which made him fall on his butt. She looked down at him and smiled a bit. "Stunned by my words I see. You recognize those words, don't you? Well, you should." She said and crossed her arms over her chest again.

Kakashi got up from the ground and took a step closer to Yuko to get a closer look at her. He did not get as close to her as he did yesterday, since he remembered how she had shoved her hand into his face and pushed him away. "Don't tell me… Yuko? Is that you?!" He asked with a surprised tone in his voice.


	7. You are so annoying!

A smile slowly appeared on Yuko's lips as he recognized her and she tilted her head a bit to the side. "Long time no see, Kakashi." She said and waved at him.

Kakashi looked at Yuko and was still surprised that she was there. He thought that he would never see her again after she left the village with her parents twenty years ago. The boy with the whiskers once again waved his hand in front of Kakashi's face and then he looked at the woman with the magenta hair. "Do you know Kakashi-sensei?"

Yuko looked at the boy with a smile and nodded. "Yes I do. I used to live here twenty years ago and Kakashi was my frie-… No, I won't call him a friend, because that's not what he was. I don't really know what he was to me." She said and looked back at Kakashi, who looked like he had returned to reality. "Yuko… What are you doing here? I thought you left Konoha forever." Kakashi said and rubbed the back of his head.

Yuko shook her head. "Well, I didn't. After living in Kumogakure for twenty years I decided to move back to the village where I was born. I arrived just two days ago." She said and moved her hair behind her ears.

"Really? Did you move back here on your own, or along with your parents?" Kakashi asked curiously, but Yuko ignored his question, since he had no right to ask about her parents, and she did not want to talk about her parents, so she just looked at the three teenagers. "Are those your students? How old are they?" She asked, since she was curious to know their age.

Kakashi nodded lightly and looked at Yuko. "Yes. This is Naruto, Sakura and Sai. Sai was added to my team just recently. Naruto and Sakura are 15 years old and Sai is 16 years old."

Yuko nodded understanding and blinked when Naruto suddenly stood right in front of her and looked at her as if he was examining her. "Are you really an old friend of Kakashi-sensei's?" He asked and crossed his arms over his chest.

Sakura's eye twitched annoyed and clenched a fist before she hit Naruto on top of his head. "Naruto! Don't get so close to her! You don't know her! And it's rude to get all up in the face of someone you don't know!" She scolded him and looked angry.

Yuko sweat dropped lightly and rubbed the back of her head. "It's okay. It's not like he was all up on my face, so there's no need to scold him. And I wouldn't really say that I'm an old friend of Kakashi's. More like an old acquaintance." She said and shrugged a bit.

"Yuko." Kakashi said and stepped closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. He had something he wanted to ask her.

"Hm?" Yuko asked and looked at him with a slightly annoyed look on her face. "What is it?" She could see a smile playing on his lips behind his mask, which made her raise an eyebrow at him and question what he had to say to her.

"Why did you interrupt my training with my team? I find it hard that it was only to say hello to me." Kakashi said and kept smiling the same smile. He was acting like everything was okay between the two of them.

Yuko kept her eyebrow raised and folded her arms over her chest. "I told you that when I grabbed my kunai from the ground. If you want to improve their weapon skills you should give them something more challenging than just throwing kunais and shurikens at a target."

Kakashi raised his eyebrow at her and crossed his arms over his chest as well. "Is that so? Since when did you become a weapon expert? Last time I checked you couldn't even hit the targets even though how much you trained." He said, but short after regretted saying that. He did not meant to bring up something from the past, but it had just ticked him off a bit that Yuko was questioning his training methods. After all, as far as he knew, Yuko could not throw a kunai or a shuriken the last time he saw her and he had no idea of how much she had improved since then.

Yuko's eye twitched when Kakashi made that remark and she felt like breaking him into two for saying that, but she knew that she could not do that and took a few deep breaths to calm down. "For your information, Kakashi, I became an expert and specialist on weapons when I was 19, and if you would have cared to show up at the third training ground yesterday when the tests started, you would have seen my weapon skill test. Instead you showed up late and came with some lame excuse that you had to help an old lady with her groceries." She said and looked away from him before she would explode.

Kakashi sweat dropped a bit and rubbed the back of his head. "Lame excuse? It was true enough though. I really did have to help an old lady." He said instead of saying anything else about how Yuko used to handle her weapons when she was a kid. He figured that it would probably piss her off even more if he did it again, and he honestly did not want to piss her off. He had only seen her again for a few minutes and considering how she reacted the day before when he mentioned something from the past, he already had a pretty good idea that she had a short temper.

Both Naruto and Sakura got in front of Kakashi and began to shout at him. "You always show up late and come with some lame excuse, Kakashi-sensei!" They pointed at him while shouting at him, but Kakashi just ignore them and took a step closer to Yuko, who just frowned a bit and took a step away from him. "You're hopeless Kakashi!" She reached into her weapon holster and grabbed three kunais between her fingers and moved her eyes to the side, glancing briefly at the targets that was placed about thirty meters away. She looked back at Kakashi and threw the three kunais, hitting one of the targets bullseye. She huffed satisfied when she saw that Kakashi was staring at her. "So, Kakashi. Do you want to eat the words you said to me twenty years ago?" She asked and raised her eyebrow at him.

"I, uhm…" Kakashi trailed off, as if he did not know what to say, and rubbed the back of his head as he looked at the three kunais again. He was honestly surprised that she had managed to improve her weapon skills that much over the past twenty years, considering that she could barely hit the targets when she was just five meters away from the targets when she was a kid. He was about to say something when he heard Gai yell in the distance. "Yuko-chaaaaan~"

Yuko blinked when she heard someone yell her name in a way she recognized. She looked to her right to look at the person who called out her name and saw Gai come running towards them and before she knew of it she was tackled to the ground by Gai, who hugged her tightly and made her laugh. "Gai! You're hugging me too tight!" Yuko said while laughing.

"Yuko-chan~! You are back!" Gai said and rubbed his cheek against Yuko's while crying like he did the day she left Konoha, which made Yuko giggle lightly. She pushed him off of her and got up from the ground. "I sure missed your silliness and personality Gai. Although I'm a little puzzled how you recognize me now when you didn't recognize me yesterday. How come?" She asked and dusted her clothes off.

Gai got up from the ground and looked at Yuko with a confident smile on his face. "I sure missed you too! Konoha wasn't the same after you moved, and I recognized you yesterday after your fight with Kakashi, because you flipped out on him, but you disappeared before I got a chance to say anything to you. I heard someone yelling at Kakashi just now and you're the only one I know who has yelled at him like that."

Yuko nodded lightly and was about to apologize for just disappearing like that the other day, but was cut off before she even got to open her mouth when someone called out Gai's name. "Gai-sensei!" Yuko looked in the direction Gai had come from and saw two guys and a girl run towards them. She could recognize the girl from the day before. It was Tenten, the girl se did the weapon test with, but she did not recognize the two guys though. One of them had long brown hair, which he had tied in a very loose pony tail, and his eyes looked like he was blind. The other guy actually looked like a mini version of Gai. It freaked Yuko out a bit, because it was just like looking at Gai when he was younger.

Gai looked at the three teenagers and then back at Yuko. "Yuko, these are my students. Neji, Lee and Tenten. You probably recognize Tenten from yesterdays test. Guys, this is my childhood friend, Yuko." He said and smiled widely while patting Yuko's hair.

Yuko gigged and grabbed his hand to stop him from patting her head. "It's good to see that you haven't changed at all Gai. I sometimes missed your silliness when I was in Kumo. I could have used you to cheer me up on many occasions." She said and then looked at Kakashi with an annoyed expression on her face. "You don't seem to have changed either, which is a shame. And before you ask, no, I did not miss you."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Yuko and crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh? I feel so loved now." He said with a somewhat cheeky and teasing tone in his voice, which really annoyed Yuko. "You're so annoying!" She said and huffed at him as she slapped him across the face, making everyone blink and stare in surprise. "You deserved that!" She said with a sharp tone in her voice.

"Woah! Why did you do that to Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked as he looked at Yuko and then looked at Kakashi again, who was rubbing his cheek and looked surprised himself.

Yuko glanced to the side at Naruto before stepping away from Kakashi. "Let me guess. He never told you guys how mean he was when he was a kid?"

Naruto and Sakura both blinked slightly surprised by her question and shook their heads no at the same time. Their sensei never spoke of his past, so they had no idea how he behaved as a kid or how his childhood was.

"Okay then. Let me tell you a little about your sensei." Yuko said and looked at Naruto and Sakura. "Kakashi used to tease me endlessly about my poor ninja skills, but he mostly teased me about my weapon skills. I may even say that it was close to bullying. I was not a good ninja as a kid, nor was I smart or good with weapons. I was only 5 years old had just started in the academy, but he was pointing out my flaws almost every day and up to the day I left Konoha with my parents." She said and looked at Kakashi after she finished explaining to Naruto and Sakura what he did her when they were kids.

Kakashi sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm really sorry that I did that to you Yuko. I really am." He said and looked at me with a guilty look in his uncovered eye. He looked like that he really was sorry about it and that it was really nagging him.

Yuko raised her eyebrow a bit in disbelief and crossed her arms over her chest. "Hm, sure you are Kakashi. I've been here for about half an hour or so, and you haven't given me a proper apology yet." She said and looked away from him.

"I truly am sorry about it Yuko. I know that a simply apology won't be enough to make it up to you, but I want to apologize to you properly. Let me start out with buying some weapons from your parents' weapon shop when it opens again." Kakashi said and slipped his hands into his pockets.

Yuko frowned a bit when Kakashi mentioned her parents and their shop. She clenched her fists to not yell at him. "Well, you can't do that." She said and kept looking away from him.

"Come on Yuko. Are you really that mad at me that you won't let me buy weapons in your parents' shop?" Kakashi asked and raised an eyebrow.

Yuko felt the tears fight their way to her eyes and she did her best to fight them back. She did not want Kakashi to see her cry as one of the first things after all these years. She was not the same weak crybaby as she was when she was a kid, but her parents were a very sensitive subject for her. When she felt Kakashi's hand on her shoulder she could not fight them back any longer. She pushed his hand off of her shoulder and turned around to look at him. "You can't go to their weapon shop, because they're not coming! They're dead!" She snapped at him and looked into his visible eye and watched as it widened when he saw the single tear that ran down her cheek. "Yuko, I-..." He was cut off by Yuko when she shook her head. "Don't. Just don't." She said as the last thing before she disappeared from the third training ground.


	8. The old shop

_June 13th_

About a week had passed and Yuko had spent the entire week on getting back into her daily routine, unpacked her stuff and furnished her home. She still had a few things to unpack and put on their places, but she wanted to take a break, so she went on a walk to see more of Konoha to see if the village had changed a lot or not after she moved away. A few things had changed, but it was only some minor things. It was nice to take a tour around the village and refresh her memories from when she was a kid. She remembered where she used to play and who she used to play with, the days in the academy and the training with her friends. All of the memories made Her smile.

Ahead of her, she could see the road that went to where her parents' old shop was. She had some memories from the shop as well, like, her father showing her all of the many different weapons and herbs he and her mother were selling. She would also help her mother arrange the herbs and put new herbs on the shelves. One time her father let her help him with a customer, because she wanted to help him. She would come with the wrong weapon all the time, but the customer was a nice guy, so he just laughed at it along with her and her father.

Yuko decided to follow the road to the old shop, since she was very curious to see what was there now, if there were another weapon shop, a book store, a grocery store, some other kind of store or if the building was just empty. She turned around the corner and looked at the building where the shop used to be. She was happy to see that the building was not empty, but that there was some sort of tea house called 'Konoha tea'. It looked like a nice and cozy place where people could sit and enjoy a cup of tea. Yuko walked over to the shop and stepped inside. There was a strong scent of green tea and flowers from the sakura tree branches that were placed in vases on the tables, and the atmosphere in the tea house was calm.

A man with light blue hair, yellow eyes and a pair of glasses, who wore a pair of black pants, a white shirt and a small dark grey male apron around his waist, walked over to Yuko when he noticed her in the tea house. "Can I help you miss?" He asked with his deep voice.

Yuko blinked surprised when she heard a man talk to her, since she had not noticed anyone in the tea house. She looked to her right and saw the man standing next to her and smiling at her. "Ah, uhm, can I have a cup of tea?" Yuko asked and smiled lightly.

"Yes of course. Take a seat wherever you want and take a look at our tea menu. I will be with you in a minute then." The guy said as he gave her a small menu with their tea flavors and walked back to the small counter.

Yuko nodded lightly and took a seat by a table placed by the window. She looked out of the window and blinked surprised when she saw that there was now a small beautiful garden where her father used to have his small stock building for herbs and some weapons. She smiled softly to herself and looked at the list of different flavors of tea the shop offered. She looked towards the guy, who she assumed was the waiter. He was the only one there at the moment. Maybe he was always there by himself. She smiled lightly as he came over to her to get her order. "Have you decided what tea you'd like?" He asked and smiled kindly at her and adjusted his glasses a bit on his nose.

Yuko nodded lightly and gave him the menu back. "Yes, I'd like a cup of green matcha tea and an ichigo daifuku." She said and smiled back at him.

The guy nodded and wrote it down on a small notepad. "I'll be back with your tea and your daifuku in a bit." He said and walked back to the counter.

Yuko turned her head and looked out the window again, admiring the small garden. She was amazed that the owner of this place managed to make the garden look so beautiful. She remembered that it always looked like a dump when her parents had their store there. Her father had a small corner of the garden where he used to grow some of the herbs for the store, which was the only part of the garden he spent the most time taking care of. The grass on the rest of the garden were always reaching just beneath her knees and there would sometimes lie different garden tools around on the ground, so to see the garden like this with a pond, a small bridge over the pond, a few trees and some flowers was a bit surprising for her.

Yuko was deep in her thoughts while staring out of the window, but was snapped out of it when she heard the tea cup and a plate being placed in front of her on the table. She turned her head and looked at the guy. "Thank you."

He nodded lightly and looked back at her. "You're welcome." He said with a smile and turned around to walk back to the counter.

Yuko looked at the tea and the daifuku and took in the scent of the tea. It smelled and looked really delicious. She lifted the tea cup and took a sip of the bright green tea. It had a slightly bitter taste, but was slowly followed by the natural sweetness from the matcha, just the way she like it. She put down the cup again and grabbed the spoon, cut a piece of the ichigo daifuku and ate it. The first thing she tastes was the plain and dry taste from the mochi, but the sweet taste from the red bean paste and the juicy and sour strawberry quickly followed. It tasted to delicious and the sweet and sour ichigo daifuku went well with the matcha tea.

The guy walked over to Yuko again and placed a small bowl with sugar on the table. "I apologize. I forgot to bring you the sugar for the tea." He said and looked at her.

Yuko looked at him and shook her head. "There's no need to apologize. I don't use sugar to sweeten my tea. I may sometimes use a bit of honey if the tea is too bitter, but I mostly prefer the tea as it is with its natural flavors." She said and smiled lightly.

He smiled softly at her and bowed his head a bit. "It's a pleasure to meet another person who likes to enjoy the tea's own flavor and sweetness without adding additional sweeteners to it." He said and turned around to go back to the counter, but stopped when Yuko spoke up. "Oh, before you go back to the counter, can I ask you a question?" She wanted to ask him about the tea house.

He turned around and looked at her again. "Yes, of course. What do you want to ask?" He asked and adjusted his glasses.

"This may be a weird question to get from a customer, but how long has the tea house been here in this building?" Yuko asked and moved a piece of her bangs out of her face.

"How long the tea shop has been here? Hmm..." He tapped his chin while thinking. "I think that in two months it is six years ago the tea house opened. Or is it seven? I don't quite remember, but it's either six or seven years."

Yuko nodded lightly and smiled. "I see. Do you know what this building was used for before the tea house opened?" She asked, as she was interested to know about the history of the building and curious to know what other shops or stores the building had hosted after her parents' closed the weapon shop and moved away.

"Hmm, as far as I know, the building was standing empty for about three years before the tea house opened. Before it was empty there was a flower shop and before that a weapon and herb shop. May I ask why you're asking these questions?" He asked curiously.

Yuko smiled softly and nodded. "I'm the daughter of the people who owned the weapon and herb shop that used to be in this building twenty years ago. I'm just curious of what was in this building after my parents and I moved away from the village." She said and took a sip of her tea.

The guy blinked surprised. He had not expected to meet a previous owner of the building, even though Yuko was not the owner of the building, but her parents. "Really? So the weapon shop closed because the owners moved away?" The guy asked and smiled lightly. "Have you've moved back to Konoha? Or are you just travelling?"

"I've moved back, but on my own though. I missed Konoha." Yuko said and glanced outside at the garden. "It's such a lovely garden, it's really beautiful. I'm amazed how the owner of this place did such a great job on making that old dump of a garden into such a beautiful garden. My father mostly cared for the herbs he grew in the garden."

The guy chuckled lightly and adjusted his glasses. "Why thank you Miss. I'm glad to hear that you like what I've done to the garden." He said, which made Yuko blink and look at him slightly surprised. He did not really look like the owner, since he looked like a waiter, because of the apron he wore around his waist. "You're the owner of the tea house? I'm so sorry. I thought you were a waiter, because of the apron." She said and smiled sheepishly. She felt a little stupid for assuming that he was the waiter.

"It's okay. don't worry about it. I don't wear a sign that says 'boss' or 'owner', so you couldn't have known that I'm the owner. But yes, I'm the owner of the tea house. I'm Nakamura Hotaka." He said and smiled at her.

"I'm Tohiro Yuko." She said and smiled lightly. She was still feeling a bit stupid for assuming him as the waiter, even though he told her not to worry about it.

"Welcome back to the village Yuko. I'll let you enjoy your ichigo daifuku and your tea while it's still hot." Hotaka said with a smile and walked back to the counter.

Yuko kept smiling for a bit before she looked out the window at the beautiful garden again while enjoying her tea and eating her ichigo daifuku. It was very peaceful in the ea house and even though the garden and the interior of the building looked different from how she remembered it, it was still nostalgic for her to be in the tea house. She had a feeling that she would be coming there to enjoy a cup of tea often.

Once Yuko finished enjoying her tea and the ichigo daifuku, and had been looking at the garden for just a bit longer, she decided it was time to leave again to do some grocery shopping. She got up from the chair and walked up to the counter to Hotaka to pay for the tea and ichigo daifuku.

Hotaka looked at her as she was by the counter and smiled. "Did you enjoy your tea and the ichigo daifuku?" He asked and put away some clean tea cups.

"I certainly did. The tea was just as it should be and the ichigo daifuku was sweet, a bit sour and delicious. Are they homemade?" Yuko asked curiously, since most homemade sweets always seem to have the most realistic taste of the ingredients that are used, compared to the ones you can buy in the stores.

"Yes. I make all of the tea and the sweets myself. I guess you could say that tea and sweets are my passion. It's something I really love to do and I've done it for many years." Hotaka said and placed the bill in front of her.

Yuko grabbed her wallet and placed the money on the bill. "I could definitely taste that the ichigo daifuku was homemade. It was really delicious, and the tea was just as it should be." She said and put her wallet away again.

Hotaka smiled kindly at her and put the money away. "Thank you a lot. It makes me happy to know that you liked the tea and the ichigo daifuku. Come back anytime you want."

Yuko nodded with a smile and headed for the exit. "I will. Goodbye." She said as she walked out of the tea house and headed towards a grocery store to buy some groceries before heading home. She was deep in her thoughts about a lot of things and accidentally bumped into someone. She fell backwards and landed on her butt. “I’m so sorry. I was deep in my thoughts and wasn't looking where I was going.” She said and rubbed her butt while looking up at the person she had bumped into. A frown formed on her face when she saw it was Kakashi and looked away. “Now I’m not so sure if I’m sorry.” She said annoyed.

Kakashi looked at Yuko with a raised eyebrow and reached his hand towards her to helped her up, but she just pushed his hand away and got up on her own. She turned on her heel to walk away, but she was stopped by Kakashi, who grabbed her wrist. She turned around and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “What is it?!” She asked and looked down at their hands. "Let go of me!"

Kakashi ignored her request to let go of her, since he suspected that she would just walk away before he got to say a word. “About yesterday. I’m sorry if I offended you in any way by mentioning your parents. I didn’t know they were dead.” He said and looked at Yuko with an apologizing look on his face. He had been looking around for her since she disappeared from the third training ground, because he wanted to apologize to her. "You're either good at hiding, or you're just good at avoiding me."

Yuko sighed annoyed as she pulled her wrist out of his grip and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s fine. How could you possibly know? We haven't seen each other since I left Konoha, for obvious reasons.” She pointed out and raised her eyebrow at his last remark. "Maybe it's both? But does it surprise you that much that I'm avoiding you?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and shook his head a bit. “Not really no... If I asked how your parents died, would you tell me about it?" He asked curiously.

Yuko leaned against the wall of the building they were next to and raised an eyebrow as she sensed a smile behind his. “Why should I tell you about my parents' death?”

“Well, I’m just curious. No one is ordering you to tell me about it.” Kakashi said and shrugged shortly. He was getting somewhat annoyed by Yuko's hostility towards him, but at the same time he did not blame her.

Yuko sighed a bit as she rested her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. “I was just 11 years old when they died. It was late in the evening and I was training with my two teammates and my sensei when some ninja thieves entered their shop to rob it from weapons and money. My father was stupid and stubborn enough to try and fight the thieves and my mom fought alongside him, but of course they were no match for them, since they were resigned ninjas, so the thieves ended up killing my parents.”

Kakashi nodded lightly at Yuko's words and stepped closer to her. “And what happened to you after your parents were killed?” He asked curiously. He hoped that she had not been alone after her parents death, like he was after his father had taken his own life.

Yuko opened her left eye and looked at Kakashi, seeing that he was now closer to her than he was before. “My sensei took me in and raised me. She really cared about me and was worried about me after my parents died. She and I used more or less every day to train and sharpen my skills.”

Kakashi nodded understanding and smiled at Yuko behind his mask. “I assume that your ninja rank is jonin, considering your brilliant weapon skills and how you fought against me at the third training ground the other day, even though you made a few mistakes.” He said and slipped his hands into his pockets.

Yuko tried not to let her eye twitch at his little remark about their fight, but smirked a bit when she remembered that she did end up pulling him onto the ground. She moved away from the wall and took a step closer to Kakashi, still having her arms crossed over her chest and looked him in his uncovered eye. “Well, I kind of beat you in that fight, didn’t I? So take a guess.” She said and kept the smirk on her face.

Kakashi frowned a bit at her words and narrowed his uncovered eye. “You caught me off guard when you suddenly pulled me down. The fight was over, so it technically wasn't a win.”

Yuko raised her eyebrow and shook her head. “Oh really? Isn’t a ninja supposed to never let his guards down? Hm?” She asked in a taunting manor, since she remembered how strictly Kakashi would always follow the rules.

Kakashi blinked and nodded a bit while rubbing the back of his head. “Well, yeah, they are. But-...” He was cut off midsentence when Yuko put her hand up to make him stop talking. “No excuses Kakashi. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m a bit busy.” She said and patted his shoulder as she walked away. She was feeling so calm and relaxed after being in the tea house, so she was not in the mood to discuss with Kakashi and get her mood ruined.


	9. Training with friends

_June 18th_

Three days had passed and Yuko had been doing some gardening work to clean up in the garden behind her house, since it did not look so pretty. The grass was pretty high, fallen leaves were everywhere on the ground and withered flowers and weeds were everywhere as well, so she had spent the past two days on fixing the garden, and she had not been given any missions yet, so she had taken the opportunity to do it while she had it. Now the garden looked much better. The grass was a normal length, the withered flowers and the weed had been removed, new flowers had been planted and the fallen leaves had been removed from the ground.

Yuko looked out at the garden through the living room window and smiled to herself as she remembered a memory of when she would play out there as a kid before she started at the academy. Her mother would sit in a chair and watch her while she played different games with herself or a friend, and when her father came home from work he would play with her. Yuko sighed lightly and headed upstairs to the bedroom. She had decided to do some training today, so she had no time to laze around. When she entered her bedroom she changed into her ninja outfit and tied her weapon holster around her right thigh, tied her forehead protector around her left thigh and walked back downstairs. She put on her boots when she got to the front door and walked out, locked the door and headed for the third training ground. The weather outside was amazing. It was around 8:15 in the morning and there were no clouds on the sky, the birds were chirping, the sun was shining and there was a light breeze. It was not very hot outside yet, so it was the perfect time to do some training.

Once Yuko was near the third training ground and began to think of what she should train, how long she should train and what she should do once she was done training. She blinked surprised when she felt a hand on her shoulder and stopped in her tracks. She turned around to see who the hand belonged to and saw that it was Izumo who had placed his hand on her shoulder, and Kotetsu was standing next to him. “You surprised me Izumo. What are you two up to?” She asked.

“We've been calling your name a few times, but you didn't respond. We just wanted to say hi." Izumo said and looked at Yuko "I see that you are wearing your ninja outfit. Are you going on a mission?" He asked and smiled.

Yuko shook her head. "No, I haven't been given a mission yet. I'm actually heading towards the third training ground to do some training." She said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Really? Do you want to come with us then? We're heading towards the third training ground as well. You could train with us and the others." Kotetsu suggested and smiled.

Yuko nodded lightly and began to walk again. "Sure, I'd love to. Who else is coming?" She asked and looked at the two of them, wondering who they were going to train with. She was wondering if she knew the others they were going to train with.

Kotetsu and Izumo walked on each side of Yuko and looked at each other before answering Yuko's question. "I don't know if you remember them, but we're going to meet Kurenai, Asuma, Iruka, Gai, a guy you don't know, named Yamato, and, uhm... Kakashi." Izumo said and rubbed the back of his head while smiling sheepishly. Both he and Kotetsu knew how much Yuko hated Kakashi, so they were a bit worried that she did not want to join them now when she knew that he was going to be there as well.

Yuko's eye twitched and let out a sigh when Izumo mentioned Kakashi's name. "It's fine. I still want to join the training. If I want to avoid Kakashi for the rest of my life and stay away from all of the places he goes to I wouldn't be able to go anywhere." She said and glanced at both of them.

Kotetsu patted Yuko's shoulder lightly. "That's true, and you can't really avoid him that much. You're both jonin, so you'll possibly be put on missions together from time to time. But it has been years since we last trained together. I'm curious to see how much you have improved your ninja skills, Yuko." He said and smiled.

Yuko smiled and looked at Kotetsu. "Well, I'd say that I have improved quite a lot, considering that I couldn't even throw a kunai properly the last time we trained together, let alone that I could hardly do any of the basic jutsus they teach you at the academy." She said and sweat dropped a bit while smiling sheepishly. Even though she had improved so much in her ninja skills and had become a jonin, she was still somewhat ashamed of how bad her skills were when she was a kid.

"Since you're a jonin now it means you must have done a lot of training and trained hard to improve your skills. When were you promoted a jonin?" Izumo asked and looked at Yuko as she was thinking. "I was promoted a jonin when I was 17 years old. So eight years ago." She said and looked at Izumo, who just nodded understanding. She looked ahead and saw the third training ground coming into view in front of them. She followed Kotetsu and Izumo to where they were going to meet the others and saw that five people had already arrived. She could recognize four of them from when she lived in the village as a kid, but she could not recognize the last guy. He had short brown hair, black eyes and wore a happuri-style forehead protector that framed his face. He had to be the guy named Yamato, who Izumo mentioned would be there as well. The only person missing was Kakashi. Maybe, if she was lucky, he would not show up at the third training ground anyways, or arrive when they were about done with the training.

The three of them stopped up once they were in front of the others and Izumo spoke up. "Hey guys. We bumped into an old friend on our way here, so we thought that we would bring her. We hope that it's okay." He said and rubbed the back of his head.  
Yuko looked at the others and waved a bit. "Hey. I don't know if you guys remember me, but I'm-..." She was cut off midsentence by Gai who suddenly shouted out her name. "Yuko-chan! You're here as well! This is going to be fun." He said and chuckled while placing his arm around Yuko's shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze, making her smile lightly. "Yes, I'm here too. I was on my way here to do some training on my own, but then I bumped into Kotetsu and Izumo and they asked me if I wanted to join." She said and looked at Gai, who just nodded and gave that flashy smile of his.  
Kurenai looked at Yuko and blinked when she realized her. "Yuko? Wait, didn't your parents own the weapon shop that used to be in this village many years ago? I think it was called 'Tohiro weapons and herbs'. Kakashi used to tease you a lot, didn't he?"  
Yuko sweat dropped a bit and gave a single wave, almost like a salute. "Yeah, that would be me." She felt a little annoyed by how Kurenai remembered her, like, a victim of Kakashi's endless teasing. She began to wonder if that was how everyone remembered her, as the girl Kakashi used to tease all the time. That was not really how she wanted people to remember her.  
Iruka stepped closer to Yuko to get a better look at her and rubbed his chin. "Ah! I remember you. You were in the same class as me in the academy, but you weren't in the class for long. I would often find you here at the third training ground practicing how to throw kunais and shurikens and you would sometimes be upset over Kakashi and I had to comfort you. It's been years since I saw you. Where have you been? Have you returned to the village, or are you just here shortly?" He asked and smiled.  
Yuko looked at Iruka and smiled. She remembered him from the academy and that he would sometimes talk to her when she was crying or feeling sad when Kakashi had teased her. She had missed him. "I'd say that I'm a Konoha ninja." She said and pointed at the Konoha forehead protector, which she wore around her left thigh. She used to wear her forehead protector from Kumogakure around her thigh as well, so it just felt natural for her to place her Konoha forehead protector there as well. "I have been living in Kumogakure for twenty years, but I moved back to Konoha barely two weeks ago, and it feels so good to be back. I've missed a lot of things and friends here in Konoha." She said and folded her arms over her chest.

Iruka nodded understanding and smiled lightly. "It's great to see you again Yuko. Welcome back to the village. Is the village still as you remember it? Or have you noticed some changes?" He asked curiously, since he had lived in the village all of his life, so he had not noticed many changes.

Yuko tapped her chin as she thought for a few seconds and then shook her head a bit. "To me the village still looks the same, but I have noticed a few changes, like, there are more stores and buildings now compared to when I was a kid."

Iruka nodded and folded his arms over his chest. "I'm curious to know something. How did you move from one ninja village to another? You would have to get permission from the Hokage and Raikage, am I right?" Since he had never even thought about moving to another village he was curious to know how something like that was processed for a ninja.

Yuko nodded at Iruka's question. "Yes, I needed permission from the Raikage and the Hokage to move from Kumogakure to Konoha. If I had just moved without permission I could have been listed as a missing nin and be hunted by the ANBU from Kumogakure. It took me some time to convince the Raikage to let me go, though, but he gave in and let me go after exchanging letters with the Hokage." She said and watched Iruka as he just nodded. "So that's how it works? Have you met the Hokage yet?" Iruka asked.

Yuko was about to answer his question when Gai spoke up all of a sudden. "She has! Tsunade-sama had Tenten, Kakashi and I to test her the day after she arrived in the village. She caught Kakashi off guard and beat him." He said and patted Yuko's back while the others just stared at her, since they knew that Kakashi never let his guard down towards anyone.

Kakashi arrived at the third training ground just as Gai mentioned that Yuko had beat him the other day, which made him sigh and shake his head. "She didn't beat me. The fight was over and she just happened to catch me off guard when I wanted to help her up from the ground." He said, having everyone looking at him.

Yuko glanced to the side at Kakashi and rolled her eyes a bit. "I'm not taking it as I beat you in the test, but you did let your guard down towards me when you wanted to help me up, so in a way I guess I did beat you." She said and looked away from him again.

Kakashi looked at Yuko and raised his eyebrow a bit. "For how long are you going to be hostile towards me, Yuko? You've been in the village for almost two weeks now and you won't let me apologize to you for what I did." He said and slipped his hands into his pockets.

Yuko looked at Kakashi and flicked his forehead. "I have my reasons for not wanting to get near you and you very well know why. Until I'm getting anywhere close to want to forgive you, I won't let you apologize, because it's not easy to forgive what you did."

The others looked at Kakashi and Yuko argue and felt the atmosphere getting heavy, which made them all feel awkward and sweat drop. "Come on you two. It's enough of that arguing for now. Let's do some training!" Gai said and grinned.

Yuko huffed at Kakashi and looked at Kotetsu and Izumo. "Come on you two. You wanted to see how much I have improved, so the three of us are going to train together." She said as she grabbed their wrists and dragged them with her away from Kakashi. She would not mind training with any of the others, except for Kakashi, but Kotetsu and Izumo wanted to see how much she had improved, so it seemed the most logical that she trained with the two of them first.


	10. At the tea house

After four hours of training and sparing with each other they finally finished and they were all feeling a bit exhausted, but most of all they were feeling thirsty and a bit hungry. They had decided to go somewhere together and Yuko had convinced them all to come to the tea house, since she thought it would be nice to be in a place that were nice and calm and the tea house certainly had a calm atmosphere to it. None of the others had tried going to the tea house before, they did not know that there was a tea house where Yuko's parents' shop used to be, so they were a bit surprised when Yuko mentioned the tea house to them. She had not told them that it were the building where her parents' shop used to be, so she was wondering if any of them could recognize the route.

They arrived at the tea house and Yuko stepped inside first. She looked around while the others found a place to sit and saw Hotaka by the desk as the only one there as usual. She had visited the tea house one time since she found it five days ago. She smiled at Hotaka and waved at him when he looked over at her with a smile. "Hello Yuko. You're here again I see." He said and walked over to her with a menu.

Yuko nodded and smiled. "Yes I am. This time I'm not here alone though. I've brought some of my friends with me. We just did some training and wanted something to eat and drink, so I recommended this place." She said and pointed at the others by one of the big tables.

Hotaka looked over at them and blinked surprised before chuckling a bit. "It's great that you recommended this place." He said and smiled kindly and gratefully at her. "I'll go get some more menus then. One won't be enough." He said and walked back to the desk.

Yuko just giggled lightly and walked over to the others. She sat down on the seat between Kotetsu and Izumo. She had told them to make sure that she would not sit next to Kakashi, so it made her glad that they had actually made sure to sit down at the other end of Kakashi at the table.

Hotaka came over to the table and placed a menu down in front of everyone. "I'll come back and take your orders in a bit." He said with a smile and looked at Yuko before he walked back to the desk to prepare the water to make tea.

Iruka had noticed that Hotaka looked at Yuko before he left and looked at her. "Yuko, do you know that guy?" He asked in a whisper and discreetly pointed towards Hotaka.

Yuko looked at Iruka then at Hotaka and back at Iruka again. "Well, I won't say that I know him personally, but this is my third time coming here in this week, so I've gotten to talk a bit to him. He's the owner of the tea house." She said and looked at the menu even though she already knew what she wanted to order. Green matcha tea and an ichigo daifuku.

Iruka nodded understanding and looked at the menu to see what the tea house offered. He was impressed that they offered a wide variety of teas and delicious pastries. Some of the pastries were very sweet while others were milder in the sweetness.

Hotaka soon came back to the table and had his pen and notepad in his hand. "Are you all ready to order?" He asked and looked at them as he wrote down each of their orders. He gathered the menus before walking back to the desk to make the teas and pastries.

Gai looked around in the tea house and then looked at Yuko while rubbing his chin. "Yuko, this place seems kind of familiar. Have I been in here before? Or am I just imagining things?" He asked and raised his eyebrow a bit.

Yuko looked at Gai and shook her head. "You're not imagining things. You have been in here before, but it is many years ago. This is the same building where my parents had their weapon and herb shop." She said and smiled.

Everyone blinked surprised and looked at Yuko. "This is where your parents' weapon and herb shop was before? It looks so different from back then." Izumo said and looked around.

"Yeah, I know. I was quite surprised to see how the owner of this tea house had transformed the building, especially the garden. It looks so beautiful." Yuko said and watched as the others looked out the window to take a look at the garden. "Wow. I slightly remember what the garden used to look like when your parents had their shop, but the garden looks really amazing now." Izumo said and looked back at Yuko, who just nodded and smiled. "I know, right? Like I said, I was especially surprised to see how the owner had transformed the garden."

Kakashi was looking at the garden as well. He had never been in the building when Yuko's parents had their shop, so he had no idea what the garden used to look like. "What did the garden look like when your parents had their shop here, Yuko?" He asked and looked at her.

Yuko glanced briefly at Kakashi before she turned her head and looked at him properly. "Well, let's just say that it didn't look nearly as great or beautiful as it does now. My father cared mostly about the herbs he grew himself and didn't pay much attention to the rest of the garden." She said and looked at Hotaka as he came with a tray with everyone's pastries. He put the pastries down in front of everyone and smiled. "I'll be back with your tea in a few seconds." He said and went back to the counter to get the tea. He could not have both the pastries and the tea cups on the tray at the same time, so he had to go twice. He put the cups with tea and the little container with sugar on the tray, walked back to the table and placed the tea in front of each of them after putting the sugar on the middle of the table. "Enjoy your tea and your pastries." He said with a smile and walked back to the counter.

Yuko stirred in her tea with the spoon a bit before she took a sip of it. The tea was as great as always. She really enjoyed the natural sweetness from the matcha tea. She looked at Gai after he had complimented his own tea and had taken a bite of the pastry he had ordered. "I told you this place were amazing." She said with a smile and took a bite of her ichigo daifuku.

Gai chuckled and looked at Yuko while giving her a thumbs up. "You sure did Yuko! I'm still surprised that I didn't know of this place." He said and took another bite of his pastry.

"Well, I don't know what you guys have been doing after I left the village, but I found this place because I was curious to see if the building was being used, or if it was standing empty. If I hadn't been curious to know that I might not have discovered the tea house either." Yuko said and looked around at everyone. She blinked when she noticed that Kakashi had already finished his tea and the goma dangos he had ordered. She had not seen him take a sip of the tea or even a bite of the dangos. "When did you finish your tea and dangos? I didn't even see you start."

Kakashi looked at Yuko and moved his tea cup and plate to the middle of the table. "I finished about a minute ago. I just tend to eat fast when I'm out in public or around others." He said and crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in the chair a bit. He never let anyone see his face, so he had finished the tea and the dangos while the others were distracted and focused on their own tea and dangos.

Yuko raised her eyebrow a bit and put down her tea cup. "It's not healthy to eat that fast. As a ninja you should know how to keep your health and body in shape. Did you even get to taste the tea and dangos properly before shoving it all down your throat?" She was feeling a bit annoyed that he did not even taken the time to enjoy the tea and the dangos. He had finished it all so fast as if he was in a hurry. "If you didn't have the time to sit and drink some tea and get something to eat with us, why did you even come?"

Kakashi shrugged a bit and closed his eye. "I did get to taste the tea and the dangos. They were indeed delicious. It's just a habit of mine to eat my food fast." He said as he opened his eye just a bit and glanced at the side at Yuko. He did not want to tell her why he ate fast when he was in public or around others. Considering that she was hostile towards him most of the time he figured that she would probably find it odd. Although, he wished that she would not be so hostile towards him. He was impressed with how much she had improved her ninja skills and wanted to know more about her and know how her life had been after she left Konoha, but since she would avoid him most of the time it was not easy for him to ask her any questions. He had also noticed that some old feelings and memories were returning to him, which made him want to talk to her even more.

Yuko sighed and shook her head. "I doubt how much you were able to taste the flavors when you finished so quickly." She said before taking a sip of her tea and looked away from Kakashi again, who chose not to reply to her last little comment. He knew it would just be the start of an argument if he did and he did not want that.

Once everyone had finished their tea and pastries, they paid for each their stuff and left the tea house. Yuko looked at everyone and smiled. "I'll go back home. It's getting late and I need to make dinner. It was fun training with you all again."

"It was fun training with you again Yuko. We missed it after you moved away from the village." Kotetsu said and crossed his arms over his chest.

Iruka nodded agreeing with Kotetsu and looked at Yuko with a smile. "Plus, it was great to see how much you have improved. I'm very impressed." He said and his words were soon followed by a thumbs up from Gai and some encouraging words. "I agree with Iruka! I have already seen what you can do, but it was great to see it again. You have put a lot of effort into your training since you were a kid and you're still very youthful!" He said and gave a flashy smile.

Yuko giggled at how silly Gai was and looked at everyone. "Thanks. I'll see you guys around." She said and waved at everyone as she headed for her home. She had truly had fun with everyone today, even though Kakashi had been there as well. She would not mind to train with them some other time if she ever got the chance to do it again. She thought of what she should cook for dinner while walking.


	11. Time to start forgiving?

_July 9th_

Three weeks had passed and Yuko got her first mission as a Konoha ninja two days ago, after living in Konoha for a little over a month. It was not a big mission, as she would only be away from Konoha for a day, but it was better than nothing. Yuko had started to get annoyed that she had not gotten any missions when a month had passed, but she could not do anything about it. She was sure that Tsunade was making sure that she could trust her enough to give her mission and lower any suspicious thoughts she may have had against Yuko, so when she got the mission two days ago she felt relieved and happy.

Yuko had just arrived back in Konoha and was heading for Ichiraku's ramen shop to get something to eat before going home. The time was 7:30 pm, she had no food at home to prepare for dinner and she was feeling too tired and exhausted to go shopping for any groceries, so she went with the easy solution and went to buy some ramen instead. She also had to do the report for the mission she just finished, so she could turn it in to Tsunade as fast as possible.

She entered the ramen shop and took in the delicious smell of the broth and ingredients for ramen that was being made. Yuko sat down on one of the stools after ordering a tonkotsu ramen and looked around in the ramen shop. It was a small shop, but she kind of liked that.

Naruto entered the ramen shop and sat down on a stool that was two stools away from Yuko. "The usual ramen old man!" He could not wait to eat his favorite ramen in the village. He stretched a bit while grinning and looked to his left when he noticed someone there and blinked when he saw who it was. "Hey! You're Kakashi-sensei's friend, uhm... Uhh..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head while thinking of her name.

Yuko blinked when the person who entered the ramen shop after her suddenly spoke to her and looked at him. She smiled a bit when she saw who it was, but sweat dropped when he seemed to be thinking hard over her name. She did not blame him though. As far as she knew he had only heard her name twice on the day she interrupted Kakashi's training with Naruto and the two other on the team about a month ago. "Yuko. My name is Yuko. You're Naruto, right?"

Naruto nodded and blinked at bit when she said his name. "You remembered my name?" He asked and moved to the stool next to her instead of sitting away from her.

Yuko nodded and smiled. "I'm good at remembering names and faces." She said and looked at her ramen when the bowl was placed in front of her. It looked very delicious and smelled just as delicious as it looked. She grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the glass, tore them apart and tasted the ramen noodles.

Naruto nodded understanding and smiled. "You moved to Konoha from another village, didn't you? How do you like Konoha? Have you gotten any missions yet?" He asked and waited impatiently on his own ramen after Yuko had gotten hers.

Yuko looked at Naruto and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "I was born here in Konoha. My parents had a shop where they sold weapons and herbs. They moved the shop to Kumogakure because of financial reasons when I was 5 years old, so of course I had to tag along. I lived in Kumogakure for years until I recently wanted to move back to Konoha." She said and ate a bit more of her ramen before answering the other two questions Naruto asked her.

Naruto had gotten his ramen while Yuko had been explaining and had already finished the bowl and ordered another one. "So you're originally from Konoha? Has Konoha changed since you moved away?" He asked and tilted his head.

Yuko sweat dropped when Naruto had put down the empty ramen bowl, which he had just gotten. He ate faster than Kakashi did. She shook her head at his question. "Not much. Of course some things have changed, but not as many things as I thought would have changed. There are more stores now and more buildings in general." She said and looked at Naruto, who just nodded and smiled a bit. "What about missions? Have you gotten any yet?" He asked.

"Yeah, I just got back from my first mission as a Konoha ninja. I've lived here for a little over a month now and I just got my first mission two days ago. It feels great to be out of suspicion, or at least enough to be given a mission."

Naruto blinked a bit confused and tilted his head the other way. "Suspicion? Granny Tsunade was suspecting you of something?"

Yuko blinked a bit surprised when he spoke of the Hokage as a granny. He should have more respect for the Hokage than to call her granny. "Wouldn't you be suspicious if a ninja from another village wanted to move into Konoha? The ninja could secretly be spying on Konoha and send hidden messages about Konoha and its ninjas to the village they're originally from. So the Hokage, or other Kages, are kind of gambling when they're letting a ninja from another village move and become a ninja of their village. I think the only reason I was allowed to move back to Konoha for the Hokage is because I'm originally from Konoha. If I hadn't been born here, I don't think the Hokage would have even considered it."

Naruto blinked a bit at her explanation and rubbed the back of his neck. He had not thought of that. "Heh, yeah, I would be suspicious of that too if it was me who was Hokage. But you don't seem like a person who would betray Konoha. You seem very honest." He said and began to eat the new bowl of ramen that was placed in front of him.

Yuko smiled lightly at Naruto's words and ruffled his hair. "Thanks. It makes me happy to know that you think like that about me, and you're right, I wouldn't betray Konoha. This is where I was born and where I have my earliest memories from. I don't think I could ever betray such memories, even though I'm a ninja and I shouldn't let my feelings get in my way. If anything I'd protect Konoha with my life."

Naruto chuckled a bit and grinned. "I like to know that someone else love this village just as much as I do. I have one last question for you Yuko. You've been away from Konoha for so many years, but you have never once forgiven Kakashi for what he did to you as a kid. Why haven't you forgiven him? You mentioned a month ago that he would tease you about your ninja skills and point out your flaws, but didn't it just make you strive to train harder to sharpen and strengthen your skills as a ninja and become better? Isn't that why you're a weapon expert now? You're friends and friendships are important. You should be able to forgive your friends for the mistakes they made in the past."

Yuko looked down at her ramen when Naruto asked that. He hit the nail right on the head. She had never forgiven Kakashi for what he did to her as a kid and she had never thought about forgiving him, and on top of that he was right when he assumed that it would make her strive to train harder to sharpen and strengthen her skills when Kakashi had teased her and pointed out her flaws. If he had not done that she probably would not have trained nearly as hard. She sighed a bit and looked at Naruto. "It's not that easy to forgive and forget, Naruto. It hurt a lot every time Kakashi would say something our point out a flaw in my skills. I was only a kid and not a genius... But you're right about one thing. Kakashi's teasing made me want to train harder in order to strengthen and sharpen my skills." She said and ate the last of her ramen.

Naruto listened to what Yuko had to say and ordered his fifth bowl of ramen after finishing his fourth. "It's not as difficult to forgive and forget as you might think it is. I've forgiven a lot of people in my life." He said and began to tell her about his own life, but in the short version. That he had no parents and grew up on his own, that everyone in the village would avoid him and call him names and how no one would let their kids near him.

Yuko was surprised to hear all of that from Naruto, but most of all she was surprised that she had gotten a life lesson about friendship and how to forgive and forget what people did to you in the past from a 15 year old boy. She smiled lightly at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for sharing that with me Naruto. You're a really nice person and I'm glad I got to have this conversation you, but I have to leave now. I have to go home and make the report of mission, so I can turn it in to the Hokage tomorrow morning."

Naruto nodded understanding and smiled. "Thank you Yuko and you're welcome. It was great to get to know one of Kakashi-sensei's old friends better. See you around!" He said and his smile turned into a grin.

Yuko giggled a bit and got up from the stool she was sitting on. She put the money for her ramen and Naruto's five bowls of ramen on the desk. "This is on me as a thank you for the conversation and for teaching me something about forgiving." She said with a smile.

Naruto blinked surprised but a grin soon spread across his face. "Thank you Yuko!" He said and excitedly and felt somewhat happy that he did not have to pay for all of those bowls of ramen himself. He could save those money for the next time he went to the ramen shop.

"You're welcome Naruto." Yuko said and patted Naruto's shoulder before walking out of the ramen shop and headed back home. The only thing she had to do before going to bed was to take a shower and make the report. Luckily she lived close to the ramen shop, so she did not have a long way home. It would take her about fifteen minutes to get home.

The first thing Yuko did after she came home was to take a shower and once she finished she went to the bedroom and put on some relaxing clothing. She wore a pair of black pants, a grey shirt and a yellow cardigan. She went downstairs to start working on the report for the mission, but it knocked on the front door before she even got to sit down by her table in the kitchen. She looked at the time and wondered who would come to her place at 8:45 pm, so she went to the door and opened it. She was surprised to see an ANBU ninja and the first thing she could think of was that he was either there to get the report, which she had not even started yet, or he was there because Tsunade needed her for another mission already. "Yes?" She asked the ANBU ninja.

"The Hokage wants to see you immediately. It's important, but not mission related." The ANBU ninja said and disappeared in a smoke screen.

Yuko coughed a bit and waved a hand in front of her face to blow the smoke away. "What in the world does Tsunade want with me now at this time?" She mumbled to herself as she slipped on her shoes and grabbed her keys. She walked out, locked the door and headed for Tsunade's office. While she was walking, she could not stop thinking about what could be so important that Tsunade had summoned her at this time in the evening. Could it be that she was still suspicious with her? Yuko found that a little hard to believe, because why would Tsunade had given her the mission after a month if she did not trust her? Nonetheless, she was very curious about what Tsunade wanted.


	12. Bad news

Chapter 12: Bad news

Once Yuko arrived at the Hokage's office she knocked on the door and waited for Tsunade to tell her to enter, which she did just two seconds after she had knocked. Yuko opened the door, stepped inside and jumped a bit when the door closed behind her. She turned around and saw two ANBU ninjas standing by the door, which gave her a very bad feeling about the situation. She turned around again and looked at Tsunade and her assistant, Shizune. "You wanted to see me? If it's about the report of my mission I have to say that I haven't been able to start on it yet." Yuko said as she walked closer towards the desk, but jumped a bit in surprise when Tsunade looked up at her from the papers she was reading through. She looked at Yuko as if she was having some mistrust against her, which worried Yuko. "It's not about the mission report. A confidential letter came to you today from the Raikage." She said and narrowed her eyes a bit.

Yuko felt a shiver go down her spine when Tsunade looked at her with her eyes narrowed. It was like she was warning her not to do anything stupid. She gulped a bit and nodded. "A letter from the Raikage?"

Tsunade nodded as she grabbed the letter from the drawer without taking her eyes off of Yuko and held it up so Yuko could see it. "I'll give it to you, but on one condition. I get to read it first to see if there's anything suspicious about the letter. If you won't let me read it I'll destroy the letter and reconsider whether you're a threat for the village or not. Do I make myself clear, Yuko?" She asked and was already ready to open the letter.

Yuko just nodded agreeing with Tsunade's conditions. She was honestly feeling a bit afraid right now and was fearing for her future as a Konoha, because she was obviously seen as a threat at the moment and she did not want to give Tsunade any reason to let the two ANBU ninjas arrest her and take her away.

Tsunade slowly moved her gaze from Yuko to the letter after she had opened it. She read through the letter and would occasionally look at Yuko and back at the letter. She read through it a few times just to be sure that nothing in the letter could be a code or anything that could be a threat for the village and sighed when she finished. "Take it." She said and held the letter out for Yuko to take and read.

Yuko nervously took the letter from Tsunade and looked at her as if she was asking for approval to read it. She began to read the letter when Tsunade had given her a single nod and felt her heart sink as she read the letter. "No... This can't be..." She said and shook her head a bit.

"I'm sorry Yuko. Both for making such a big fuss over a letter from the Raikage and for the content of the letter." Tsunade said and gave Yuko a tissue, since she knew what the letter said and figured that she would probably need one.

Yuko took the tissue with a shaky hand and kept looking at the letter. "I-it's okay. I'm used to that kind of treatment... C-can I go? Please." She asked and looked at Tsunade. She was about to burst into tears, but she did not want to do it in front of Tsunade, Shizune and the two ANBU ninjas.

Tsunade nodded and leaned back in her chair. "Of course. Given the circumstances you don't have to hurry with the mission report. It was a short mission after all, so just take it easy."

"T-thank you..." Yuko said as she put the letter in the pocket of her cardigan and walked out of the office when one of the ANBU ninjas opened the door for her. When she walked out of the building she ran towards the third training ground. She wasn't going to train. She just wanted to be alone and the training ground was closer to the Hokage's office than her own home, and if she went to the training ground she would not have to hold her tears back to prevent other people see her cry.

Once Yuko arrived at the training ground she jumped into a tree close to the memorial stone to hide and sat down on a branch. She took the letter from her pocket and looked at it to read it one more time, just to make sure that what she had read the first time was right, even though no one could read a letter like this wrong, but she was too much in denial to want to believe that the content of the letter was true and not just a horrible prank from her old teammate.

_Hi Yuko_

_It is Hiraku who's writing to you. How are you doing? Have you settled down in Konoha? The Raikage said I should write the letter, since we're old teammates. It is about Makoto-sensei. I am so sorry to let you know that she passed away last night on July 8th. She got an aneurysm in her heart and the doctors were not able to save her. I am really sorry that my first letter to you after you moved away had to be a letter like this. I know how much you loved and cared for our sensei and that she was like a mother to you after you lost your parents. The Raikage has allowed you to come back to the village for her funeral if you want, which will be held on July 14th. That should give you enough time to travel to Kumogakure. You can use this letter as your approval to enter the village when you get here. The Raikage's seal is at the bottom of this letter._

_I hope to see you at the funeral._

_Hiraku_

Yuko shook a bit while reading the letter and put it back in the pocket of her cardigan when she finished reading it for the fourth time. She had started crying the second time she read it and used the tissue she got from Tsunade to blow her nose in. At the moment she was regretting that she had chosen to move at the time she did. She knew that Makoto was sick, but she seemed to be so much better when she decided to leave Kumogakure and it was also her sensei who had talked her into moving at the time she did. At the time she was sure that she had made the right decision, but at the moment she was not so sure about it. Yuko buried her face in her palms and cried as the image of Yasuhiro, Makoto's son, flashed through her mind and feelings of guilt and deep sorrow overcame her. She felt guilty for not being there for Yasuhiro, who was basically like a younger brother to her, now when he had lost his mother, and she felt sorrowful and sorry for him, because she knew what it was like to lose a parent. Yasuhiro still had Sorin, his father, but he had always been a mommy's boy.

Kakashi arrived at the memorial stone by the third training ground. It had been a long time ago since he was last there, so he had decided to pay the stone a visit and place some flowers on the stone in memory of his old friend, Uchiha Obito. He put the flowers down and looked at Obito's name on the stone. He sighed a bit and slipped his hands into his pockets as he turned around to leave again, but he stopped in his tracks and looked around when he heard crying and sobbing. He spotted someone in a tree nearby and walked over to see who it was and if they needed help. He blinked surprised when he saw that it was Yuko who was sitting in the tree and crying. "Yuko? What are you doing up there? Is everything okay?"

Yuko stiffened for a few seconds when she heard Kakashi's voice. She moved her fingers a bit away from her eyes, so that she could peek at him. "N-no, everything is not okay. Why else would I be crying?" She asked as she moved her hands away from her face and wiped her tears in the sleeve of her cardigan. She did not even have the strength to be sarcastic with him.

Kakashi nodded lightly and looked at the ground. He was slightly taken aback that Yuko did not give him a sarcastic and cheeky reply, or tell him to leave her alone. It made him slightly worried that something had made her that sad. "Do you want to tell me why you're crying?" He asked as he looked back at her.

Yuko sniffled before she jumped down from the tree and looked at Kakashi. She was red around her eyes and her cheeks were tear stained, which made Kakashi more worried. "Why do you care?" Yuko asked as she walked past him, but he grabbed her wrist and stopped her from walking. "Do I need a reason to care and ask why you're crying? I know you're still mad at me for what happened twenty years ago, but I'm not the same anymore. Come on. Tell me what happened that made you cry." Kakashi said and kept holding her wrist.

When Kakashi mentioned that he was not the same as he was twenty years ago, Yuko remembered what Naruto had told her about an hour ago about how to forgive people for what they did in the past. She knew that it would be difficult for her to fully forgive him and that it would take some time, but she could at least try. She turned around and looked at Kakashi with tears in her eyes. "I received a letter from the Raikage today. Or actually, it was from one of my old teammates..." She said and showed Kakashi the letter. She could not make herself utter the words 'my sensei died' without breaking into tears.

Kakashi looked at the letter and then back at Yuko before he took the letter and scanned through it. He looked up at her when he finished reading it and gave the letter back to her. "I'm so sorry Yuko." He said and before Yuko got a chance to say or do anything he embraced her as if he was trying to comfort her, which kind of caught Yuko off guard, since she had never imagined that he would comfort anyone, let alone her. She did not try to push him away from her, on the contrary she did the exact opposite. She wrapped her arms around his torso and held on to him as she let go of the new tears that had build up in her eyes and cried into his chest.

Kakashi just let her cry out and did not say anything. Comforting someone else was not something that he was used to, so he was not quite sure what he should say, or if he should say anything at all, but he decided to ask her something when she had cried out for a bit. "Did she knew that she had a chance of getting an aneurysm?" He asked, but soon regretted asking when he felt Yuko tighten her grip around his torso.

Yuko slowly moved her head from Kakashi's chest and looked up at him. "S-she knew that, yes. The women on her mother's side of her family has a record of dying from an aneurysm between the ages of 35 and 45, so she was aware that she could get one too. I-I honestly didn't like to move away from Kumogakure and leave her behind when I knew that she was sick. She's the one who convinced me to move even though she was sick, b-because she had her husband to take care of her. I thought it would be okay, but now she's… she's…" Yuko shook her head and once again buried her face in Kakashi's chest as she started crying again. "M-my sensei was like a mother to me after I lost my parents."

Kakashi just nodded and did not say a word as he figured that it would just make Yuko feel worse if he asked her more about her sensei, so he just continued to hold her and rubbed her back in a comforting way. It was weird, because Kakashi's comforting was working and made Yuko feel more calm. He was the last person she had ever wanted to comfort her, but at the moment it just felt right that it was Kakashi who comforted her and whose shoulder she was crying out on. Could it be because that she was in a vulnerable situation that she let him comfort her? Or was it because of what Naruto had told her that she let him do it?

Yuko sniffled and looked up at Kakashi again when she had a question for him. "Kakashi. W-why did you put flowers by the memorial stone?" She asked and wiped some of her tears, so that her vision was not blurry.

Kakashi looked down at Yuko and used his thumb to wipe away a tear that had formed at the corner of her eye after she had wiped her eyes. "Do you remember my teammate Uchiha Obito?" He asked and wiped her tear off in his pants as she nodded at his question. "His name is written on the memorial stone." He said and sighed a bit.

Yuko's eyes widened slightly when Kakashi said that. She did not talk much to Kakashi's old teammates and she had honestly forgotten about them after she moved away from the village, which is also the reason why she never asked about them when she had moved back to the village. "W-when did he die? What about Rin?"

"They both died during the war." Kakashi said and closed his right eye. "But right now it's not about them. It's about you, okay? Let me follow you home Yuko. It's getting late and you look like you could use some rest." Kakashi said and took a step back.

Yuko nodded lightly and moved her hair behind her ear. "Y-you don't have to follow me home though. It's not that far, so I can go by myself." She said and turned around to walk home, but she squealed surprised when Kakashi suddenly picked her up and carried her in his arms. "K-Kakashi! I can walk on my own!" She said as she looked up at him and held around his neck.

Kakashi just nodded and glanced down at her briefly as he walked. "I know that, but I want to make sure that you get home safe and sound. Besides, I know you just came home from a mission a few hours ago, so I imagine that you're feeling tired and exhausted from that and even more from crying so much."

Yuko just nodded lightly and did not protest. She knew that Kakashi was right about what he said and she had no energy to argue with him about it at the moment, so she just let him have it his way and carry her home. She was still in shock that her sensei had died and that she did not even get to say goodbye to her or be by her side before she passed away. She never got to visit her in Konoha and see her home as she had promised her as she would do, but Yuko had decided that she would attend the funeral and give her a proper goodbye.


	13. Arriving in Kumogakure

_July 13th_

It has been four days since Yuko got the letter from Shii about her sensei's death and she was almost in Kumogakure. She left the day after she got the letter, since it took three days to get to Kumogakure from Konoha, so she had left early in the morning. She wanted to be there a day in advance, so she would have a day to rest and see her younger brother before she had to leave after the funeral the next day. Much to Yuko's displease, Tsunade had ordered Kakashi to accompany her to Kumogakure and back, since she had noticed just how much the death of her sensei had affected Yuko, so she thought that it was best that she did not travel alone. Tsunade had sent a letter to the Raikage to let him know that a ninja was accompanying Yuko, so that the Raikage would not think that Konoha was planning anything.

Yuko and Kakashi finally reached Kumogakure and walked through the gates. They walked over to the two ninjas by the gate and Yuko showed them the letter with the Raikage's seal and the letter from Tsunade that said a ninja was accompanying her.

One of the ninjas looked at the letters and looked at Yuko after approving of them. "Welcome back to the village Yuko. We're sorry about your sensei. We hope that she has found peace."

Yuko nodded lightly and put the letters away again. "Thank you. I hope so too." She said and headed for the Raikage's office along with Kakashi to let him know that they had arrived. "When we see the Raikage you just shut up and let me do the talking, okay?" She said and looked up at Kakashi, who just nodded and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Got it. I won't say a word unless I'm spoken to."

"Good." Yuko said and looked ahead. She did not mean to sound like she was mad at Kakashi or snap at him, but she just wanted to make it crystal clear to him that she should be doing the talking, since she knew the Raikage better than he did and it was her who had been invited back to the village to the funeral and not him. They soon made it to the building where the Raikage's office was and Yuko knocked on the door. When she heard the Raikage's voice tell her to enter, she opened the door and stepped inside with Kakashi.

The Raikage looked at Yuko and Kakashi when they entered his office. "Yuko! You came." He said and leaned back in his chair while looking at Kakashi with slightly narrowed eyes. "I got the letter from the Hokage about a ninja accompanying you, but I didn't know it would be copy-cat Kakashi."

Yuko glanced back at Kakashi and then looked back at the Raikage. "With all due respect, Ei-sama, you have no reason to worry. Kakashi is only here to accompany me. He will be with me all the time or in the hotel room while the funeral is being held. He won't be snooping around, I can promise you that."

"He better not. I'll hold you personally responsible for him here in Kumogakure and if I'm notified that he's snooping around I have no other choice than to arrest him and take it as a sign of war from Konohagakure. Have both of you understood that?" Ei asked and crossed his arms over his chest and looked at both of them.

Yuko nodded as she bowed a bit and signaled for Kakashi to do the same thing. "We understand Ei-sama. Konoha is not interested in starting a war, so Kakashi will be behaving. When the funeral is over, Kakashi and I will leave Kumogakure again."

The Raikage nodded and rested his arms on the desk. "Fine. The funeral starts tomorrow at 10:00 am. A hotel room has been booked for you and the copy-cat ninja at 'Kumo Hotel'. Just give the receptionist this." He said and placed a small letter on the desk.

Yuko took the letter and put it in her pocket. "Thank you Ei-sama. We will leave again." She said and bowed her head. She turned around to walk out of the office, but the Raikage cleared his throat, which made her stop. "I almost forgot that I have something else for you, Yuko. It's a letter from Makoto. She wanted me to give it to you." He said and placed an envelope on the desk. "And one last thing. You can thank your old teammates for me even inviting you back for the funeral."

Yuko turned around again and looked at the envelope on the desk. She took it with a slightly shaking hand and carefully put it in her bag while nodding at his words. She had to thank Hiraku and Ren for making this possible. "Thank you Ei-sama." She said and walked out of the office and the building with Kakashi. She looked up at him when they headed for the hotel. "You better behave and do as I say while we're here. I don't want to go to jail, you don't want to go to jail and we don't want an unnecessary war to start between Konoha and Kumo. Got it?"

Kakashi glanced to the side at her and nodded. "I know Yuko. I'm only here to accompany you after all, so I'll stay by your side all the time." He said and looked ahead again. "What do you think your sensei wrote in the letter?"

Yuko sighed and looked ahead. "I don't know. I'm curious to know, but I won't open the letter until we're at the hotel, just in case if the content of the letter should make me want to cry. At least the hotel is nearby, so I can read the letter soon." She said and saw the hotel coming into sight. When they entered the hotel she showed the letter from the Raikage to the receptionist, who then gave her a key to the room. "Thank you." Yuko said and walked down the hall to their room. She unlocked the door and stepped inside the room with Kakashi, who closed the door behind him and looked around in the room. They had gotten one of the big rooms with two beds. "Nice room." Kakashi said as he put his bag down on the floor and leaned it against the wall.

Yuko sat down on one of the beds after she had taken her shoes off by the door and looked at Kakashi. "The Raikage usually have his personal guests placed in the good hotel rooms to make them feel welcome in the village." She said and took the letter from her sensei from her bag. She looked at the envelope and looked at the writing on the back of it, which said 'To Yuko from Makoto'. Yuko began to shake as she opened the envelope and took a deep breath as she began to read the letter.

_Yuko, my dear._

_When you read this it means my time has come to leave this world. I'm so sorry that I could not keep my promise to you about coming to visit you in Konoha, but I got sick just two weeks after you had left. I should probably have sent you a letter about my condition, but I did not want to worry you when you were settling down in Konoha, and I thought that I would get better again. It really breaks my heart that I did not get the chance to say goodbye to you before I died, but I hope that you will be there at my funeral, so that you can at least say goodbye to me. Since I will not be able to tell you this face to face, I will have to write it here. Always remember what I taught you. How to fight, train and what to do in complicated situations. Do your best to reach your goals, and if you really want to succeed, then fight for it, do whatever it takes or… almost. Show them that you are not the weak girl you were many years ago, but show them what a strong and beautiful women you have become. I am proud that I had the honor of being your sensei and help you develop your skill and help you obtain the title of a weapon expert and specialist, and I am honored that I got the chance to raise you and call you my daughter._

_I really hope that you have settled down in Konoha and met your old friends again. I hope that you will be able to settle down good enough to find someone to share your life with, just like I have had Sorin for the past 14 years. Before I had Yasuhiro, you were the closest thing I had to having a child, so I left something for you. Sorin has it, so just go home. He will be waiting for you, and I'm sure that Yasuhiro would love to see you again. He misses you, and so do I. I will miss you even when I am gone. I will make sure to watch over you from the heavens and when you get kids of your own someday I will watch over them as well. But remember this, I love you, and I always will. To me, you will always be like a daughter, who I love with all my heart. Goodbye my dear Yuko._

_Makoto_

Yuko's eyes filled with tears as she read the letter from her sensei and the tears soon went down her cheeks as she could not hold them back any longer. She was being too emotional and she knew that, but her sensei was just as important to her as her parents were and now she had lost her too.

Kakashi looked at Yuko and noticed the tears that went down her cheeks. He walked over to her and sat down next to her on the bed. "What does the letter from your sensei say?" He asked curiously and kept from looking at the letter in case Yuko did not want him to see what personal things her sensei had written to her.

Yuko sniffled and wiped her tears in her sleeve. "T-that she's sorry that she couldn't keep her promise about visiting me in Konoha, a-and that I should remember what she taught me about training. She uhm... She also wished for me to get a happy life to share with someone, that she was proud of having me as her student and her daughter. T-that she's watching over me and that she will always love me... And that she got something for me."

"It sounds like she loved you unconditionally." Kakashi said and watched Yuko she just nodded and put the letter in her bag before she got up from the bed and walked towards the door. "Where are you going?" He asked and got up from the bed as well.

Yuko put on her shoes and looked at Kakashi. "I'm going to my old home. My sensei's husband has the thing she wanted me to have. I want to get it today before tomorrow, since we're leaving Kumogakure after the funeral tomorrow, so I won't have the time to pick it up after the funeral. Plus, it'll give me an excuse to see my baby brother." She said and opened the door.

Kakashi nodded understanding, but blinked at the mention of a baby brother. "I didn't know that you had a brother?" He said in an asking manor as he walked over to the door and put on his shoes "I'll go with you though." He said as he looked at Yuko, which made her sweat drop a bit. "Of course you're coming with me. I told the Raikage that you would be with me all the time, or in here during the funeral. And Yasuhiro isn't my real brother. He's Makoto and Sorin's son, but we've always been like siblings." She said and walked out of the room with Kakashi, who just nodded at her words. "Do you know where Sorin is?"

"Well, given the circumstances that his wife just died he's most likely at home and taking care of Yasuhiro, who must be heartbroken... So we're going to my old home." Yuko said, but mumbled the last part. It was going to be tough on her to see Sorin and Yasuhiro again, because of the circumstances. She would have wished that she was back in Kumo on a happier occasion than a funeral.


	14. Signs of jealousy

As they walked through Kumogakure towards Yuko's old home she kept thinking of ways to greet Sorin. It had only been a little more than a month ago since she left Kumogakure and even though she had known Sorin since she was 11 years old and had lived with him for 7 years from she was 14 years old until she was 21 years old, it was very hard for her to come up with something to say to him. She was only in Kumo for Makoto's funeral after all and would be leaving as the first thing once the funeral was over.

Kakashi was trying to think of something to say to break the silence between them. He glanced to the side at Yuko and arched his eyebrow a bit when he saw her chewing her own lip and the nervous look on her face. "You look like a genin who's about to do their first mission. What's on your mind?" He asked and slipped his hands into his pockets.

"Hm? Oh, I'm just trying to figure out what to say to Sorin when we get there. It really shouldn't be that hard to figure out, but I've never been in more doubt about what to say to someone as I am right now." Yuko let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead. "Who would have thought that it could be so difficult to think of something to say to someone you've known the majority of your life?" She asked and looked up at Kakashi.

"Don't think too much about it Yuko. The more you think about what to say, the harder it will be for you. Just be natural about it. You'll come up with something to say when we get there, I'm sure of it." Kakashi said and flashed her a smile behind his mask when she looked up at him. "You're probably right. Thank you, Kakashi." Yuko said and looked ahead again, but was still trying to figure out what to say.

"Yuko? Is that you?"

Yuko stopped in her tracks when she heard someone call out to her and looked around to find that someone. A small smile appeared on her lips as she saw two of her old friends. "Darui, Shii." She walked over to the two of them to greet them properly and had Kakashi right behind her.

"So it is you, Yuyu." Shii said with a smile as Yuko approached him and Darui and embraced her in a quick and friendly hug. "I heard from Hiraku and Ren that you would come to attend Makoto's funeral. I'm sorry for your loss." Darui nodded agreeing with Shii and placed a comforting hand on Yuko's shoulder. "I'm sorry too, Yuko. I can't even imagine how you're feeling."

Yuko sighed lightly as she looked at Shii and Darui. "Thank you Shii, Darui. I was actually on my way to see Sorin and Yasuhiro. I want to spend as much time with Yasuhiro as I can while I'm here. He probably needs me, and he's my brother, so it's the least I can do."

Shii nodded understanding. "I think Yasuhiro would be happy to see you. As far as I know he has missed you a lot. At least that's what I've heard from Hiraku and Ren." He said before taking a quick glance at Kakashi and looked back at Yuko.

Darui had been looking at Kakashi for some time now to keep an eye on him. "Who's your friend, Yuko? Does the Raikage know that he's here?" He asked curiously and glanced at Yuko with a raised eyebrow.

Yuko looked back at Kakashi and then at Shii and Darui again. "Oh, that's Kakashi. The Hokage assigned him to accompany me on the journey here and back to Konoha. And yes, the Raikage knows that he's here. There's no need to worry though. Kakashi will be with me all the time, and the Raikage made it very specific that I'm being held responsible for him." She leaned in closer and whispered to them. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that the Raikage has assigned one or two ANBU's to follow us around. It would surprise me if he hadn't." She had already noticed one ANBU following them around. She was used to it from her younger years after all, so she was aware that someone was following them to keep an eye on them.

Both Shii and Darui nodded understanding and Shii just smiled at Yuko. "As long as he Raikage knows that he's here and that he's going to stay with you all the time, then we have nothing to say about it. We were just making sure so you won't get in trouble, Yuyu" Shii said.

Kakashi stood a little back to give Yuko some space and watched the three of them talk. He would arched his eyebrow just slightly as Shii called Yuko 'Yuyu'. He got the impression that the two of them were close, since he had a nickname for her and only he seemed to be using it. He felt slightly envious of the thought of Yuko having a close relationship to one of them and just wanted to get going. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze to get her attention. "Shouldn't we get going, Yuyu? Your time in Kumogakure is limited. Didn't you say that you want to spend as much time with your brother as possible?" He purposely used Yuko's younger brother as his excuse for them to go, but he questioned himself why he called her Yuyu.

Yuko blinked rather surprised when Kakashi called her Yuyu and looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Uhh, yeah, we should get going." She looked back at Darui and Shii with a light smile. "It was nice seeing you again. I'll see you at the funeral tomorrow?"

Darui nodded and slipped his hands into his pockets. "We will be there. See you tomorrow at the funeral." Shii nodded agreeing with Darui and smiled. "See you tomorrow Yuyu." He said and waved as the two of them walked off.

Yuko waved at them before she began to walk again and looked up at Kakashi with a rather questioning look on her face when he walked up next to her. "Okay, would you mind explaining to me what that was about?"

Kakashi looked down at Yuko and shrugged. "What was what about?" He asked and slipped his hands into his pockets. "I just asked if we should get going so you can spend as much time with your baby brother as you can."

Yuko sighed and shook her head. "You know what I'm talking about. I bump into two old friends and we had only been talking for like, two or three minutes or so, before you rushed me to go, and not to mention that you called me Yuyu."

"Was that wrong of me to call you that? I mean, it's your nickname, isn't it?" Kakashi asked and thanked himself for coming up with a reasonable excuse for the use of her nickname, since he had never called her anything but her name.

Yuko sweat dropped when he pointed that out and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, no, it's not wrong of you to call me that. The only people who calls me that are my two old teammates, Yasuhiro and Shii. No one from Konoha knows about that nickname, besides, you called me Yuyu out of the blue when you heard Shii call me that."

Kakashi just shrugged again and glanced down at Yuko. "If you don't want me to call you that I'll stop. But you guys seemed to be close. Are they close friends of yours?" He asked and looked at where he was walking. He wanted to change the subject of him using her nickname.

Yuko nodded and smiled a bit. "Yeah, they are. I spend much of my time at the training ground. I trained more than my teammates, or that's wrong to say. They trained a lot too, but not at the training ground. Many times when I was there on my own, Darui and Shii would show up and we would train together, and when I was 16, I dated Shii for a short while."

Kakashi blinked a few times and looked at Yuko again when she mentioned that she used to date Shii. Hearing her say that made him feel slightly more envious of how close she was to the two Kumo ninjas. "You used to date one of them? For how long? Was it a good relationship? Why did you break up?" He stopped himself right there from asking more questions. He did not intend to ask her those questions, but had just swung them out at her anyways. This could be difficult to talk his way out of.

Yuko raised her eyebrow and looked up at Kakashi with a very curious look. "Yeah, I dated Shii for about four months, and the relationship was okay, but we decided that we were better off as friends. There were no chemistry between us. It was there in the beginning, but it quickly disappeared again... Why do you seem so concerned about that?" She asked, but before Kakashi could answer her question she let out a snicker. "Don't tell me that you're jealous. Are you?" The thought of him being jealous was kind of amusing to her.

Kakashi sweat dropped at her question and at the slightly satisfying look on her face. It annoyed him, because she was partially right, but he would no admit that to her. "No, I'm not jealous. Why would I be jealous?... Anyways, when are we there?" He asked, once again trying to change the subject to something else.

Yuko looked ahead and took a deep breath when she saw the house coming into view. The sorrow that she had forgotten for a few minutes was now clinging to her once again. She felt her heart break just thinking of Yasuhiro crying over his dead mother. "We're almost there. It's just a little further ahead." She mumbled and had to give herself a mental slap to prevent herself from bursting into tears again. She glanced at her shoulder when she felt Kakashi's hand on it.

"It's okay Yuko." Kakashi said reassuringly in an attempt to comfort Yuko and make her more calm, although he did not know if it would work or not. He was worried about her and wanted her to know that she could rely on him.


	15. Tough visit

Yuko stood in front of the door to her old home and just stared at it for a moment, thinking back on the times where she lived in that house along with Makoto, Sorin and Yasuhiro. At the beginning, when she was 11 years old, it was only her and Makoto living together. Makoto had taken her in after her parents died and became like a mother to her. Sorin moved in with them three years later and another three years later, Makoto gave birth to Yasuhiro, her and Sorin's son. Yasuhiro quickly became like her own brother and when he could talk he would call her his sister. Yuko often looked after Yasuhiro when he was a baby and would often play with him. All those happy memories seemed just like yesterday, which made Makoto's death all that more surreal and heart breaking to Yuko.

Kakashi stood behind Yuko and watched her just standing there. He let her have a moment by herself, but when three minutes had passed he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yuko. He won't know that we're here if you don't knock on the door." He said in a calm voice.

Yuko was knocked out of her memories when she felt Kakashi's hand on her shoulder. She let out a deep sigh and rubbed her face before nodding lightly at Kakashi's words. "I know. It's just... So many memories from this place. It seems like it was yesterday it all happened. I thought the next time I would come here it would be to visit all three of them, and not to say my condolences to Sorin and most likely comfort Yasu. It's just so hard."

"I can understand that Yuko, trust me, I can. But you can do it. I know you can." Kakashi said encouraging and gave her shoulder a light squeeze before he removed his hand. He slipped his hands into his pockets and watched her as she knocked on the door.

A few seconds passed before the sound of the door being unlocked could be heard and Sorin slowly opened, but just enough for him to look outside. "Yuko?" He said in a rather surprised tone, as he had not expected her to come until after dinner time, or before the funeral would start in the morning. He glanced at Kakashi for a moment, trying to decide if he should let a stranger into his home or not, but figured that he was with Yuko for a reason, and that he could not let a ninja from another village roam around outside. "Come in." He said and opened the door more, so she and Kakashi could come in.

"Thank you Sorin." Yuko said and stepped inside along with Kakashi. She looked at Sorin after she had taken off her shoes and gave him a hug. "I'm so sorry Sorin." Holding back her tears was very difficult, but she managed to do it.

"What are you apologizing for?" Sorin asked as he hugged back, but soon let go of her again and looked at her. "Who is he by the way? I was debating whether I should let him in or not." He said and gestured towards Kakashi.

Yuko looked at Kakashi and then back at Sorin. "That's Kakashi. He's been assigned by the Hokage to accompany me on the journey here and back to Konoha. The Raikage knows that he's here. He's no threat... And I'm apologizing for not being here when Makoto passed away."

Sorin nodded understanding and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's okay Yuko. It just happened so suddenly. No one saw it coming, even though her family has a history of dying from aneurysms. I'm glad that you're here though."

"I'm glad to be here too, although I would have wished that the circumstances were more happy. How's Yasu holding up?" Yuko asked and had a worried look on her face. She knew very well what it was like to be a small kid and lose a parent, although she was 11 years old when she lost her parents and Yasuhiro is 12 years old.

"He's not taking it well. He stays in my bed most of the time, but on Makoto's side of it and he doesn't sleep much. He doesn't eat much, he keeps hugging one or two of the teddy bears he got from Makoto and he constantly wears one of her shirts. He's mad at the world for taking his mother away from him." Sorin said and let out another sigh.

Yuko felt her heart break when she heard how bad Yasuhiro was taking his mother's death. She did not blame him though. She was mad at the world as well when her parents died. "Poor Yasu. Is he in your roo-" She was cut off midsentence when she heard a little boy's voice call out to her.

"Yuyu..." Yasuhiro had heard his father talk to someone, who's voice seemed familiar to him. He had left the bedroom and instantly recognized his older sister when he saw her. "Y-Yuyu!!" Yasuhiro ran towards Yuko, wearing a shirt that was much too big and feminine for him, and hugged her, clung to her and started crying into her stomach. He was rather small for a 12 year old boy, as he was just 138 centimeters tall.

"Yasu..." Yuko gently stroke her baby brother's hair before picking him up and held him close to her. She kissed the side of his head after he buried his face in the crook of her neck and rubbed his back to comfort him. Her neck was getting wet from Yasuhiro's tears, but Yuko did not care about that at the moment. All she cared about was trying to comfort Yasuhiro the best she could.

Sorin watched his son and kissed the back of his head while his face was buried in Yuko's neck. "Yuko, why don't you go sit down in the living room? I'll bring some tea or water and then go get the box Makoto left for you."

Yuko looked at Sorin and nodded. "Sure, sounds like a good idea. Come Kakashi." She said as she gave him a quick glance before walking to the living room while carrying Yasuhiro; Kakashi following her. She sat on the couch and had her brother leaning against her in her lap. "Are you wearing mommy's shirt?" She asked and looked at the light grey shirt with pink cherry blossoms that he was wearing.

Yasuhiro nodded and sniffled. "Y-yeah..." He sat up straight in Yuko's lap and rubbed his eyes before looking at Yuko with a sorrowful look on his face, which made Yuko feel so bad. She kissed his forehead and reached towards the box with tissues on the coffee table, grabbed two tissues and wiped the tears off of Yasuhiro's cheeks before wiping his nose clean and used the other one to wipe off the tears from her neck. "Do you like wearing mommy's shirt?" She asked and looked at him.

Kakashi sat in the armchair and watched the two of them. He felt sorry for Yuko's brother when he saw him so sad and heartbroken about the loss of his mother, but he felt like it was out of place for him to say anything, since he did not know Yuko's brother or sensei.

Yasuhiro rubbed his eyes again and nodded at Yuko's question. "Y-yeah. It makes me feel like she's still here." Tears welled up in his eyes once again, but he rubbed his eyes before he would start crying. He looked towards Kakashi when he realized that there was a stranger in their home. He had not paid attention to Kakashi when he saw that Yuko was there. "Yuyu, who's that? Is he your boyfriend?"

Yuko blinked surprised at Yasuhiro's question and looked at Kakashi, who seemed to have a teasing glint in his eye when he had seen the color on her cheeks turn pink. She sent him a quick glare before she looked back at Yasuhiro and shook her head. "No Yasu. He's a friend that the Hokage told to come with me to make sure I would arrive here safely." She explained.

Kakashi stared at Yuko in surprise when she mentioned him as a friend. He had expected that she would call him a colleague, or just someone that the Hokage had sent with her, but he had not expected that she would call him a friend. It caught him off guard.

Sorin walked inside the living room, carrying a tray with beverages in on hand and a box under his arm. He placed everything on the coffee table and poured everyone a glass of water before gently pushing the box towards Yuko. "This is the box Makoto left for you." He said and sat down in the second armchair.

"Thank you Sorin." Yuko took the box and placed it next to her on the couch, so she could look at the things inside it and still have Yasuhiro on her lap. She opened the box and looked at the different things inside it.

Kakashi tried to see what was in the box, since he was curious to know what her sensei had left her, but could not see anything from where he was sitting. "May I ask what's in the box Yuko?" He asked and looked at her.

Yuko gently moved the things around in the box to get an overview of the things and smiled softly, but sadly. "Some of Makoto's training scrolls, teaching scrolls, sealing scroll, some of the weapons that she bought at my parents’ old shop, some pictures of me, her, Yasu and Sorin, and…" Something caught Yuko's eye in the box and she picked it up. "The medallion I gave her after she took me in." She said as she opened the medallion and looked at the pictures inside it. The medallion was big enough to contain four small pictures and Makoto had changed two of the pictures and left two frames empty. One of the pictures were of Yuko and her parents and the other picture was of Yuko, Yasuhiro, Makoto and Sorin together. In the two empty frames she had placed two labels. On one of the label she had written: "save this spot for you and the love of your life." And on the other label she had written: "Save this spot for your future children." Yuko closed the medallion again and put it around her neck before holding it close to her chest. She took a deep breath and tried not to cry, since she did not want Yasuhiro to start crying again. "Thank you Sorin, for keeping this for me until I got here." She said and looked at Sorin, who nodded and smiled at her. "You're welcome."

Yasuhiro looked inside the box and picked up a picture of him as a one year old and Yuko when she was 18. They were both asleep in Yuko's bed and she had an arm over him while he was cuddled up to her. "Yuyu. Are you going to sleep here?" He asked and looked up at his sister.

Yuko looked at Yasuhiro and kissed his forehead. "I'd love to, but I don't think I can. I'm responsible for Kakashi, so I can't let him stay at the hotel by himself, and I don't think your father wants a stranger sleeping in his home."

Hearing that, Yasuhiro instantly looked at his father with the biggest, saddest and begging puppy eyes that he could muster. It was clear to Sorin that his son wanted Yuko to stay the night, but Yuko was right. He was not fond of the idea of having a stranger in his home, let alone sleeping in his home. But on the other hand, Yasuhiro had not gotten much sleep the past few days, so maybe he would actually feel calm and get some sleep if Yuko stayed. He let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his head. "Yuko and her friend can stay, but on one condition. He sleeps on the couch and stays there the entire night. No sneaking around."

"Thank you daddy!" Yasuhiro exclaimed with a somewhat happy voice and clung to Yuko. "You heard that Yuyu? You can sleep here." He said and looked up at Yuko, who just smiled at him. "Yeah, I heard that Yasu." She kissed Yasuhiro's forehead and looked at Sorin. "I promise you that Kakashi won't be sneaking around. He has no reason to do so anyways. We will go get our stuff at the hotel and then we'll come back, okay?" She said and looked at Kakashi with a look on her face that said that this was not up for discussion.

Kakashi just gave a slight nod when he saw the look on her face. He did not have any intentions of stopping Yuko from being with the only family she had left on the one day she could be with them.


	16. The funeral

_July 14th_

Yuko had just finished taking a shower and put on her black clothing for the funeral. She brushed her hair while walking out of the bathroom and went to Sorin's bedroom, where she had been sleeping in his and Makoto's bed along with Yasuhiro. She grabbed a hair tie from her backpack and tied her hair in a loose ponytail as she sat down on the bed and looked at the time. There was about forty-five minutes before the funeral would start.

Yasuhiro had been in his own room to get dressed for the funeral. He came back inside his father's room and walked over to Yuko, hugging her. "Yuyu... Can I wear mommy's shirt to the funeral?" He asked and looked up at his sister.

Yuko smiled at Yasuhiro's question and kissed the top of his head. "If you can find a black one, then I'm sure you can wear it to the funeral." She said and watched him as he began to look through his mother's clothes for a black shirt. He found a plain black tank top and looked at Yuko. "Can I wear this?"

"You can wear that, but put it on under your own shirt, okay?" Yuko wanted him to look presentable at the funeral and wearing a tank top on top of his shirt would not look the best. Not for the funeral at least.

Yasuhiro nodded and took off his own shirt, put on the tank top and then put on his own shirt again. He walked back over to Yuko and hugged her again. "Thank you, Yuyu... Are you going to stay when we have buried mommy?" He asked and looked up at his sister.

Yuko smiled softly and stroke his hair. "I'm sorry Yasu. I'd love to stay longer, but I can't. When we have buried mommy I have to leave again. If I don't leave, the Raikage will arrest me and my friend." She felt her heart break when she saw the sad look on Yasuhiro's face when she said she could not stay. She reached into her backpack, moved her hand past the box she got from Makoto and grabbed something before pulling her hand back out. She moved Yasuhiro's long bangs back and secured it with two hairpins, which both had a cherry blossom on them. She looked at him and smiled. "Now everyone can see your cute face. Go take a look in the mirror."

Yasuhiro blinked and gently touched the hairpins. "I look cute?" He asked and headed towards the bathroom too look in the mirror. He stepped onto the stool he had in the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked at Yuko when her reflection appeared in the mirror and gave a small smile. "Can I keep the hairpins?"

Yuko nodded and smiled. "Yeah, you can keep them. Come Yasu, we should be ready to go in a bit." She said and waited for him to leave the bathroom. She closed the door once he was out and headed to the living room where Kakashi was and reading his book on the couch. He looked at Yuko when she entered the living room. "Yuko, where am I supposed to be during the funeral? I'm pretty sure I can't stay here, and I can't go back to the hotel, since we cancelled the room when we went to get our stuff." He said and put his book down on his lap.

Yuko looked over at Kakashi and rubbed her forehead. "Right. I didn't think of that. You have no relation to Makoto, so you can't attend the funeral. Uhm, you just have to stay nearby and wait for the funeral to end. Sorry Kakashi. I didn't think of this when we cancelled the room yesterday."

Kakashi shook his head. "It's okay. I'll find a place nearby where I can wait while the funeral is going on." He said and looked at Yasuhiro when he came over to him. He looked at the book in Kakashi's lap and pointed at it. "What are you reading mister? Can you read it for me?"

Yuko sweat dropped at Yasuhiro's question and walked over to him, picked him up and kissed his cheek. "Yasu, that's not a children's book." She said and sweat dropped more when Yasuhiro looked at her with a confused look. "He can still read it to me. Can't he?" He asked and tilted his head a bit to the side.

Kakashi chuckled at the situation and looked up at Yasuhiro. "I'm pretty sure that Yuko would rip my head off if I read this book for you. Listen to your sister. It's not a children's book." He said and put the book away.

Yasuhiro pouted. He was not happy that Kakashi did not want to read the book for him. He looked at his father when he came inside the living room. "We should go now." Sorin said and walked to the door to put on his shoes.

Yuko nodded and put Yasuhiro down while glancing at Kakashi when he got up from the couch. They walked to the front door, put on their shoes and left the house.

They had been at the place where the funeral was going to take place for some time now. Kakashi was sitting on a bench nearby where Yuko could see him at all times. She looked around to see if she could recognize anyone there. She saw Hiraku and Ren, her old teammates, and smiled lightly while walking over to them. "Hey you two." She said as she reached them.

Ren looked at Yuko and blinked surprised when he saw her, but a smile appeared on his lips. "Yuko! You're here." He said and embraced her. "I'm so sorry about sensei's death. You were closer to her than we were, so I can only imagine how you're feeling."

Yuko hugged her old teammate back and held on to him for a bit. It felt nice to get a hug from an old friend, who somewhat understood how she was feeling. "Of course I'm here. I wouldn't miss Makoto's funeral for anything... It's like losing another parent to me." She said and slowly let go of him and took a step back. "I missed you two." She said and looked at the two of them.

"We sure missed you too, Yuko. It hasn't been the same without you." Hiraku said and placed a hand on her shoulder. "How are you doing in Konoha? Is it good to be back to your old village?" He asked curiously and smiled at her.

Yuko placed her hand on top of Hiraku's and gave it a light squeeze. "Honestly, it's good to be back. I missed it more than I thought I did, although now I miss Kumogakure and you guys, and now I feel bad that I can't be here now when Yasu needs me the most." She said and let out a sigh of guilt. "I have to leave the village again once the funeral is over."

"Damn, that's rough. Yasuhiro is a tough kid, he'll pull through. Besides, we're here. We'll make sure to drop by and make sure he and Sorin are okay." Hiraku said reassuringly while Ren nodded agreeing to his words.

Yuko smiled and pulled the two of them into a group hug. "Thank you guys. It really means a lot to me." She said and let go of them again. "The funeral is about to begin. The Raikage is here. I'll go back to Sorin and Yasuhiro." She said and was about to walk when Ren spoke up. "We'll come with you, Yuko."

Yuko nodded. "Thank you." She spotted Yasuhiro and Sorin at the front row and walked up to them. Yasuhiro instantly hugged her once she reached them and cried into her stomach. He had been looking at the picture of his mother, which was standing on top of the altar that was made for Makoto.

Yuko gently stroke Yasuhiro's hair and held him close to her. She looked at the picture of Makoto and fought back her tears. She wanted to be strong for Yasuhiro, so she did not want to cry, but it was tough. She felt someone's hand on her shoulder and looked to the side to see Shii standing next to her. He had noticed that she was fighting back her tears and wanted to comfort her. "It's okay Yuko. You don't have to keep it in." He said and rubbed her arm when she nodded and rested her head on his shoulder.

Yuko felt grateful that Shii was there to comfort her. He had always been good at comforting her when she got frustrated during training when she was younger and after she lost her parents. It was probably what made her like him when they dated each other, although they did not date each other for more than four month. Neither of them could take the next step in their relationship and the chemistry to take the next step was not there. They cared too much about one another to take the risk of forcing the next step and end up losing their friendship in case it would ruin everything instead.

The Raikage walked up to the altar for Makoto and looked at the ninjas who had gathered to say their final goodbyes and pay Makoto the last respect before she would be buried. He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and began to say a few words about Makoto in her memory.

Yuko's vision got blurry from the tears, so she closed her eyes while the Raikage spoke and tried to comfort Yasuhiro, who still had his face buried in her stomach. She began to think of the good times she had with Makoto when she was a little girl and had started living with her. She was snapped out of her happy memories of her sensei when the Raikage mentioned her name.

"I would like of Makoto's old student, Yuko, who was like her daughter, to come and say a few words about her. She's probably the person who knew Makoto the best. Yuko." The Raikage said as he looked towards Yuko and waved her up to the altar.

Yuko was surprised that she was being called up to the altar to say a few words about Makoto, since she was not informed about that she was going to say something, but she did not mind. She gave a single nod and felt cold around her shoulders when Shii moved his arm away, so she could walk up to the altar. She looked down at Yasuhiro and stroke his hair. "You have to let go of me Yasu." She watched as Yasuhiro let go of her and clung to his father instead. She took a deep breath before she walked up to the altar and stood next to the Raikage. She looked at everyone who was at the funeral and felt her stomach tie a knot on itself while thinking of what to say.

"Makoto was a great ninja and a fantastic sensei, who was very devoted to her students. She would do whatever she could to help us improve our skills, teach us a new jutsu and she would always praise us when we succeeded. I was a hopeless ninja when I was a kid, but she had the patience to train me. When I lost my parents, Makoto was not married and did not have kids. She soon became like a second mother to me and raised me like I was her daughter. When Sorin moved in and they got Yasuhiro a few years later, I thought I had to leave, since I wasn't part of their family, but to my surprise they wanted me to stay. They wanted Yasuhiro to have a sister..."

Yuko had to take a short break to wipe away her tears. "I knew about Makoto's illness, but I wished to move back to Konoha where I was born, but I didn't want to leave her, since she wasn't feeling well at the time. She managed to convince me to leave anyways and said that she had Sorin to take care of her. She wanted me to be happy and didn't want to stand in my way, or be the reason for me not leaving." Yuko closed her eyes for a few second and yet again wiped her eyes. She took a deep breath before saying her last words. "The last thing I want to say before I go back to my spot, is that I miss her, I love her dearly and I always will. She will always be in my memories and in my heart. Not only as my fantastic sensei, who had so much patience with me, but also as my mother." She bit her bottom lip as it started to quiver a bit and walked back to Yasuhiro, who let go of his father and clung to her again. It felt great to be able to say those things about Makoto, but it had also been hard for her to say it to all of those people.

Shii laid his arm around Yuko's shoulders again and held her close to him as he comforted her. "It's okay Yuko. You did great." He whispered and rubbed her arm comforting while trying to hold back his own tears. He listened to the Raikage as he said the final words and gave Yuko two white roses. One for herself and one for Yasuhiro. "Come, let's put the roses on Makoto's coffin."

Yuko sniffled and took the roses from Shii. "Thank you." She leaned down and kissed Yasuhiro's head. "Yasu, let's put a rose on mommy's coffin." She said and handed him one of the roses when he let go of her with one hand. She held his other hand as they walked up to the coffin and put the roses on top of the coffin before taking one last look at Makoto's picture on the altar. She picked up Yasuhiro when he began to cry again and rubbed his back comforting. "Goodbye Makoto. I hope your spirit will rest in peace in heaven and always watch over us. We love you." She said and kissed Yasuhiro's cheek. "Can you say goodbye to mommy, Yasu?"

Yasuhiro nodded and looked at the picture. "B-bye mommy. I love you." He buried his face in the crook of Yuko's neck and continued to cry.

Yuko kissed the side of her brother's head and walked back to Sorin, who had already put his rose on his wife's coffin. "Sorin. The funeral is over. I should probably get back and change, so I can leave Kumogakure again."

Sorin looked at Yuko and nodded. "I understand. Yasuhiro and I will come with you and follow you to the gate to say goodbye. Right Yasu?" He asked and looked at his son, who nodded in response to his father's question.

Yuko nodded and handed Yasuhiro over to Sorin. "You two go on ahead. I'd like to say goodbye to everyone before I leave." She kissed Yasuhiro's head and smiled softly at him. "I'll be back home with you soon. I just need to say goodbye to some people, okay?" Yasuhiro nodded at her words and held on to his father as he began to walk home.

Yuko took a deep breath and went to say goodbye to Darui, Shii, Hiraku and Ren. Once she had said goodbye to her friends she went to get Kakashi at the bench he was sitting on. "Kakashi. The funeral is over, so it's time to go."

Kakashi looked up from his book and nodded as he got up. "Okay, let's get back to Sorin's place so you can change and we can get our stuff." He said and began to walk. "By the way, it was a very touching speech you held in memory of your sensei."

Yuko walked next to Kakashi and blushed ever so lightly at his words. "Thank you. I just said what I was feeling. I didn't know you could hear me from where you were sitting." She said and looked up at him.

"I could hear and see everything actually." Kakashi had seen how Shii had been comforting her. Of course, he was relieved that she let someone comfort her, but knowing that it was someone she had, had a relationship with made him slightly envious. "Nonetheless, it was a beautiful funeral. She was highly loved, wasn't she?" He asked and glanced to the side at Yuko.

Yuko sighed and nodded. "Yeah, she was. She was the one who taught me what I know about weapons and how to use them. She's the one who kept believing in my abilities... Sorin and Yasuhiro will follow us to the gate to say goodbye."

Kakashi nodded understanding. "Okay." He began to read in his book while walking back to Sorin's place so Yuko could change before they would leave the village. He was more focused on his book than Yuko at the moment. He was feeling jealous of how Shii had been holding Yuko and he knew that if he said anything about it, it would just make Yuko angry with him and he did not want that. Plus, he thought that she had suffered enough emotionally, so he did not want to put her through more.


	17. The mission (Part one)

_July 21st_

A week had passed since Kakashi and Yuko came back to Konoha from the funeral of Yuko's sensei in Kumogakure, and Yuko had spent most of her time at home or at the third training ground. She was aware that she should not be affected by her sensei's death for so long, but she could not help it. After all, her sensei was like a mother to her and she was the one who kept training Yuko and believing in her when Yuko could not believe in herself. Her sensei had been her greatest and biggest support and she had always been able to go to her for advice, so Yuko had tried to get over her sensei's death in her own way, by relaxing at home and training her weapon skills.

It was 3:45 pm in the afternoon and Yuko was eating a late lunch in her kitchen while wearing some relaxing clothes. She had gotten a late start on the day, due to that she had decided to take a relaxing day at home and do some cleaning here and there, since she had not cleaned since she got the letter about her sensei's death. She had been so affected by it, that she did not even want to clean her home.

She finished her lunch, which consisted of a bowl of rice, tamagoyaki, grilled fish and a small bowl with miso soup. She got up from the chair and went to the sink with the dishes, ran the water and began to wash them off, humming a bit while she did so. Once Yuko finished with the dishes she put them away and went to grab her cleaning tools in the cupboard where she kept them, but before she even got to grab around the handle to the cupboard there was a knock on the front door. Yuko turned her head and looked towards the front door while blinking surprised, as she had not expected to get any company, or visitors. She walked to the front door and opened it, looking at the ANBU ninja, who was standing outside her house.

"Tohiro Yuko, the Hokage wants to see you immediately." The ANBU ninja said and disappeared in a cloud of smoke before she even got to reply.

Yuko sighed as she closed the door after the ANBU ninja left and walked upstairs to her bedroom to change into her ninja outfit. She was not really in the mood for leaving her house, but she cannot really say no to the Hokage. She was wondering if Tsunade had some information for her, or if she had a mission for her, which it usually was when she was being summoned. The only time it was not about a mission was when she received the letter about her sensei's death and Tsunade was suspecting her for being a spy.

Yuko finished changing into her ninja outfit and walked downstairs to the front door, put on her boots and walked outside. She locked the door after her and headed for Tsunade's office, and looked around as she walked, but she was mostly in her own thoughts about different things. It was nothing in particular that she was thinking about, she was just letting her thoughts wander as they pleased. Once she got to the academy she went to the administrative division where the office of the Hokage was located and knocked on the door to the office.

It took a little while, but Tsunade finally called for Yuko to enter the office, so she opened the door and stepped inside. She was slightly surprised to see that Kakashi and his team were in there as well, and locked eyes with Kakashi for a bit when he looked at her with a slightly concerned look. Yuko looked away from Kakashi again and walked over to Tsunade's desk, not questioning Kakashi and his team's presence. "You wanted to see me Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade moved some papers away from her desk, which was covered in a pile of paperwork, and looked at Yuko. "Yes. You're going on a C-rank mission with Kakashi and his team. I have received reports from two small villages around Konoha that a group of four ninjas are on a terrorizing spree. They have been stealing weapons and killed innocent people. They have been spotted on the way towards Konoha from north and are considered a threat to civilians. The ninjas does not appear to be Konoha ninjas, so I suspect that they're missing nins. Your mission is to find these four ninjas and if they are a big threat, kill them. If not, you are to bring them back to the village and then they will get punished for their crimes. Kakashi is the leader on this mission. Did I make myself clear?" Tsunade asked and looked at the five ninjas in front of her.

They all nodded agreeing at the information that Tsunade had given them about the mission, but Yuko was still wondering why she had been chosen to go with Kakashi and his team, since Kakashi was a jonin, Sakura and Sai were both chunins and Naruto was a genin, but a quite strong one at that. So she was wondering why they needed another jonin. She did not want to question the decision that the Hokage had made.

Tsunade folded her hands in front of her face and briefly looked at Yuko, seeing the questioning look in her face, but since she did not speak up she did not ask her what was on her mind. "Do this mission fast. Those ninjas needs to be stopped immediately. You're dismissed."

The five ninjas nodded and left Tsunade's office quickly, and once they were outside Kakashi stopped them before they moved on. "Tsunade said that the group of ninjas came from North direction, but we were not informed about how far away they were from the village. I want you all to quickly go home and get necessities such as your tents, sleeping bags and food. It is most likely that we will have to camp for the night tonight, so make sure to get those things. I want to you all to meet at the main gate in twenty minutes." He said and was the first one to disappear from the spot before the others got a chance to say anything.

Yuko ran home to quickly grab the things that she would need to camp out in the open, and while she was running home she thought to herself that she had to suppress her feelings about her sensei for the sake of the mission. It would be terrible if anyone got hurt because of her and she would not have that on her conscience. Once she came back home she went upstairs to her bedroom and grabbed the backpack that she always had packed and ready with sleeping bag and a tent for longer missions. She went back down and went to the kitchen to grab some fruit, food pills and a bottle with water. She put it all in her backpack, went to the front door, walked out and locked the door behind her before she headed for the main gate.

Yuko arrived at the main gate at the same time as Naruto and Sakura, but she could not see Kakashi or Sai around. She looked at the other two when they began to talk about Kakashi's bad habit of always being late, which made her sigh and think to herself that he better not be late now, since this was quite an important mission. If they did not stop these four ninjas they would just keep terrorizing and killing innocent people.

Kakashi got everyone's attention when he showed up in the last minute along with Sai. He raised his eyebrow at the stare he was receiving from Naruto and Sakura. "Drop it you two, we don't have time for that now. Since we're all here now, and on time, let's get going." He said and began to walk out of the village with the others right behind him.

The sun was already starting to set around 9:30 pm, but it was not until around 10:15 pm that Kakashi ordered to stop for the day and set up camp. "We will get up early, so make sure to get plenty of rest and sleep." He said and began to set up his own tent.

Yuko took off her backpack and looked up at the sky for a bit before she began to set up her own tent and once she finished setting it up she took an apple from her backpack and began to eat it. She watched Kakashi as he walked over to the small lake that they were camping next to and decided walk over to him to ask him something. She got up from the ground and walked over to him while taking the last bite of her apple and threw the leftover in a bush. "Kakashi." She said when she was next to him to get his attention.

Kakashi had his water bottle in his hand and turned his head and looked at Yuko while squatting down by the border of the lake. "Yes?" He asked and put the water bottle in the lake to fill it up.

Yuko watched Kakashi put the water bottle in the lake water and raised her eyebrow. "You are aware that the water isn't clean to drink, right?" She asked and looked at him.

Kakashi nodded lightly and stood up again when he had filled his water bottle. "I know that. That's why I'm going to boil it first before I'm going to drink it." He said and put the lid back on the bottle before crossing his arms over his chest. "But I doubt that you came over here just to tell me that the water isn't clean to drink. What's on your mind?"

He was right. Yuko had not come over to him just to tell him about the hygiene of the water. She had a question for him about something she wondered about when they got the mission. She breathed in deeply before she looked at Kakashi to ask him about what was on her mind. "You're right, Kakashi. I have a question for you that I hope you can answer. Why did Tsunade put me on this mission with you and your team? This is a C-rank mission, which means that you and your team, consisting of a jonin, two chunins and a genin, who is on a chunin level, can clearly do this on your own without an extra jonin, so I'm just wondering why I'm here too? Do you know why Tsunade put me on this mission with you guys?"

Kakashi looked at Yuko and chuckled lightly as she babbled on with her question, which started out as a long explanation before she got to the actual question. "Yes, I know why she put you on this mission. I requested her to put you on this mission with us."

Yuko raised her eyebrow at Kakashi when he chuckled at her, although she knew that she had babbled on with an explanation for her question, but she had not done it to be funny. A confused expression was plastered on her face when Kakashi said that he had requested that she was put on the mission with them. "Wait, you asked Tsunade to put me on this mission with you guys? But why? It's clear that the four of you could have handled this on your own." She said and kept looking at Kakashi with that confused look on her face.

Kakashi decided not to chuckled this time, even though he thought that Yuko looked somewhat cute when she looked confused like that, but he figured that it would probably anger her if he chuckled at her. "I did it because I was worried about you, Yuko. You've more or less locked yourself inside your home since you got the letter of your sensei's death. The only times you have left your home was when we traveled to Kumogakure to attend her funeral and that one time you went to train. I understand that it hurts to lose someone you hold dear, and since she was like a second mother to you after you lost your parents, I can understand that her death has been tough on you, but locking yourself away and grieve on your own for two weeks is not good, so I thought that it would be a good idea to distract your mind and make you focus on something else."

Yuko looked down at the ground when Kakashi spoke about grieving on her own. She knew very well that it was not good for her to grieve on her own, but what else should she have done? She lost her parents years ago and the only other person, who had ever believed in her and had been like a parent to her was now dead as well. She knew that she had her friends to comfort her and cheer her up, but she still felt somewhat lonely. She sighed heavily and looked back at Kakashi. "So... You really worried about me enough to ask for Tsunade to let me come along on this mission with you and your team?"

Kakashi nodded lightly and leaned against a tree that was next to him. "Yes I did. I know what it's like to be grieving on your own, and I did not like to think that you would slip into the darkness of your own mind when I know that you have friends around you, who are worried about you and who would be there for you." He said and gently placed his hand on top of Yuko's head. "Such as myself." He said and smiled a bit behind his mask. "When I got the mission from Tsunade I knew that you had to come along, both to get your mind off of your sensei, but also so that I could keep an eye on you for a bit."

Yuko blinked slightly when she felt Kakashi's hand on her head and felt her cheeks heat up a bit as a light pinkish color appeared on her cheeks at his words. He really did consider himself as one of her friends, and considering that he had wanted her to think of something else and that he worried about her mental state made her think that maybe now was time to start forgiving him. He appeared to genuinely worry about her, which made her believe that he really was not the same Kakashi that she knew when she was a little girl. That Kakashi would not have worried about her like this, but this Kakashi does.

Kakashi watched Yuko the entire time as she just stood there without saying a word. A low chuckle slipped from his throat when he saw the blush appear on Yuko's cheeks. "It's nice to have a conversation with you where you're not scolding me or are annoyed with me. We should do that more often." He said and moved his hand from the top of her head to her cheek and moved her hair behind her ear. "And that blush looks cute on you." He said as the last thing before he walked back to the camp, leaving Yuko standing there by herself.

Yuko took a step closer to the lake and looked at her reflection in the surface. Even though it was dark outside she could still see her reflection, because of the moonlight from the moon, and she could see just how red her face was. "This is so embarrassing!" She mumbled to herself and thought about what Kakashi had said, as his words kept resonating through her mind and made her heart beat a little faster than normal. She placed a hand over her chest as she shook her head a bit to get a clear mind, but for nothing. Kakashi's words had stopped resonating in her mind, but now she was thinking of other things, such as why it made her blush that much and why her heart was beating so fast. It was just Kakashi, the guy who used to tease her when they were kids. It was not as if she had a brush on him, or, did she?

Yuko slapped her cheeks a bit to snap herself out of her thoughts and turned around to walk back to the camp. She looked at Kakashi, who was pouring the water from his bottle in a small pot he had brought and placed it over the bun fire. She looked away from Kakashi as she began to walk and tried to shake the feeling that confused her off of her. She did not look at Kakashi when she reached the camp and just went inside her tent, laid down in her sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep, but she was thinking of many things, which made it difficult to fall asleep right away. It felt like that Kakashi's hand was still on her head to comfort her, but she knew that it was not there. It felt soothing and comforting though and made her calm down a bit. "Thank you, Kakashi." She mumbled before she drifted into sleep.


	18. The mission (Part two)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jutsus used:
> 
> Suiton: Suijinheki (Water release: Water formation wall)  
> Kusarigama (Chain-sickle)  
> Shinkuken (Vacuum sword)

_July 22nd_

The following morning Yuko was the first one to wake up and she made sure to wake up Kakashi and his team, so that they could continue the mission. The five of them had packed their stuff and left the camp around 7:30am and immediately continued to head north. They had been travelling for almost two hours now and hopefully they would find the four unknown ninjas soon, since the five of them had been travelling for full speed more or less the entire time. In the worst case scenario the group of unknown ninjas had changed direction, but considering which small villages they had been terrorizing it was unlikely that they had changed direction.

Yuko was running behind Naruto and Sakura, who were arguing with each other, but Yuko did not hear what they were saying, as she was in her own mind at the moment. She was thinking about what happened last night between her and Kakashi in the moment they had where they were just talking normally with each other without her raising her voice at him or scolding him. She had felt the concern and worry that Kakashi had expressed for her last night and she was also thinking of the night where she got the letter about her sensei's death where she met Kakashi at the memorial stone. At that time he had seemed to worry about her as well, since he had tried to show his concern by trying to comfort her. It had made her realize that Kakashi was not the same person as he used to be when they were kids. He had changed, but she had been too stuck on his past person and how he used to tease her, that she had not seen the new and changed Kakashi. She felt stupid for being so childish in her behavior towards him and was determined to give him an apology.

Yuko was snapped out of her thoughts when Kakashi and his team suddenly stopped up and she just managed to stop up before she ran into Naruto's back. "Why did we stop?" She asked Naruto and looked around when she felt like she was being watched. "Forget that I asked." She said before Naruto even got to reply back to her. She felt stupid for not being observant of her surroundings and not realized sooner that they had been followed for some time. She took a step closer to Kakashi and whispered to him. "Do you think it's who we are looking for, who are watching us?"

Kakashi glanced back at Yuko and gave a single nod before whispering back. "I'm pretty sure it's them. There should not be any other Konoha ninjas here than us, and they just suddenly appeared from the direction we're heading. It can only be them." He said as he looked around at the trees again and moved his hand to his weapon holster to grab a kunai.

Yuko nodded lightly and perked up when she heard the faint sound of a weapon piercing through the wind. She quickly grabbed her katana as she got in front of Naruto and used her katana to deflect the kunai that had been thrown in his direction before it hit him, making Naruto look surprised at Yuko. "How did you know it was coming at me?" He asked startled.

"I've trained hard and in different ways, including identifying the sound of a weapon that's been thrown and is piercing through the wind to becoming a weapon expert and specialist." Yuko said and held up her katana as she took a fighting stance. "They're coming." She said which made the others take a fighting stance as well.

Four ninjas jumped down from the trees and surrounded the five Konoha ninjas. The four unknown ninjas did not wear any forehead protector, so neither Yuko nor Kakashi could identify where they were from, so they had to be missing-nins. One of them sent out a quite intimidating chakra and with an intimidating chakra like that he had to be a very powerful missing-nin. The other three did not appear nearly as intimidating as him, so maybe they were his followers or something like that.

The intimidating ninja, who had thrown the kunai towards Naruto, stepped forward and looked at Yuko while crossing his arms over his chest. "You either have good reflexes or a good ear, considering how fast you were to deflect the kunai." Most of his face was covered by the bandage he wore, like the way Kakashi wore his mask.

Yuko did not lower her katana, but tightened her grip around the handle when the ninja took a step forward and got closer to her. "Or maybe it's a mix of both." She added to his sentence and frowned a bit. "You're not getting any further. Your terrorizing of the villages in the Land of Fire ends here."

The ninja chuckled deviously, which sent a shiver down Yuko's spine. "That's big talk for such a young female ninja, don't you think? Let's see how well your words will be true in the end." He said before he signaled to the other three ninjas to attack and the four of them made the hand seals to a fire jutsu.

Kakashi recognized the hand seals of the fire jutsu and glanced back at Yuko to order her to do a certain jutsu. "Yuko, make the water jutsu suijinheki!" He said, knowing that she could perform that jutsu, and made the hand seals to the jutsu along with Yuko. They released the jutsu at the same time, forming a defensive shield of water around themselves, Naruto, Sai and Sakura, as they were standing between the two of them.

The four missing-nins stopped the fire jutsu short after Yuko and Kakashi had released the water jutsu and as if it had been planned, Kakashi and Yuko went after the intimidating one, who appeared to the leader of the four, while Naruto, Sakura and Sai took care of the others.

Yuko and Kakashi took turns on attacking the missing-nin. When he pushed one of them away with a kick, punch or a jutsu the other would attack. Yuko grabbed one of her scrolls from the scroll pockets in her flat jacket and opened it. She placed her hand on the seal in the scroll and a kusarigama appeared. She quickly put the scroll away and swung the end of the kusarigama with the sickle end towards the missing-nin.

The missing-nin chuckled and jumped away before the sickle got near him. "What was that? You weren't even close to hitting me." He said in a taunting manner and chuckled again, but he had clearly misjudged Yuko's intention of aiming the sickle end towards him. Short after he had taunted Yuko of not hitting him he found himself in pain. He looked behind him and saw Kakashi standing behind him with his hands around the handle of the sickle, which had been stabbed into his right shoulder, but he had just looked at Kakashi standing next to Yuko, so one of them was clearly a clone. "What the- when did you get back there?!" He asked out of frustration.

"Hm? You were too focused on me and my partner that you didn't notice the clone hiding and sneak up behind you, so when my partner swung the kusarigama she was throwing it to me; not to hit you." Kakashi's clone said and pressed the sickle deeper into the missing-nin's shoulder.

The missing-nin groaned in pain and lost the feeling in his shoulder and arm as the sickle had cut over the nerves between his shoulder and arm. He grabbed a kunai with his left hand and stabbed the clone, making it disappear and pulled the sickle out of his shoulder while groaning. He looked towards the two Konoha ninjas with an intimidating glare and tried to pull the other end of the kusarigama out of Yuko's hands, but she was stubborn and held on tight on her end of her weapon.

Kakashi looked at the two as they were both being stubborn and kept pulling in each their end of Yuko's kusarigama, but it was clear to him that the missing-nin was stronger than Yuko, even with only one arm functioning, and that she could not keep it up much longer. "Yuko, let go of it before he-" He did not get to finish his sentence before the missing-nin yanked hard in the chain with a lot of force, which caused Yuko to be pulled in his direction.

The missing-nin smirked when Yuko just got closer and let go of the chain as he grabbed a kunai. He raised it and got ready to stab her with it, but as he lowered the kunai to stab her through her chest, he stabbed the upper part of Kakashi's arm instead, as he had gotten between the two of them to get Yuko out of there, but he was not fast enough and ended up shielding her instead.

Yuko's eyes widened as she saw Kakashi's shoulder getting stabbed in front of her and instantly got worried. "Kakashi!" She swung the heavy sphere end of her kusarigama and hit the missing-nin's head with it before she kicked him hard into a tree, which made him pass out. Yuko helped Kakashi over to another tree and made him sit down. She knew that she had to hurry, because she knew that the missing-nin would not stay unconscious for too long from that hit. She pulled out the kunai, which made Kakashi groan in pain, and immediately began to heal the wound. "Why did you do that Kakashi?" She asked, but kept her eyes on the wound.

"You wouldn't have been able to judge the kunai, even if you're an expert and specialist on weapons. He's strong and fast. He would have stabbed you before you even got away, and I could not let that happen. I wanted to get you away from him, but I wasn't fast enough, so I ended up using my arm as a shield for you." Kakashi said and looked at Yuko. "You don't have to heal my arm. You should focus on the missing-nin."

Yuko looked up at Kakashi with a look mixed with worry and annoyance. "The kunai was stabbed deeply into your arm. It could have cut your nerves and you would have lost the feeling in your arm, just like the missing-nin, so just let me do it." She said and looked back at his wound. She was not a medical-nin, but she had learned four medical jutsus from her father before he was killed, so she could heal his wound the best she could until an actual medical-nin could take a better look at his arm.

Kakashi did not reply back, as he figured that it would just lead to an argument, since he had figured out by now just how stubborn Yuko could be, so he just watched her as she healed his arm. "Thank you Yuko." He said and looked into her eyes when she lifted her head to look at him, which made her blush a bit. "You don't have to thank me Kakashi." She said and looked away from his eyes when she felt her cheeks heat up and her heart beat a little faster, which confused her a lot, since her heart had never done that around Kakashi before. She opened her mouth to ask Kakashi a question, but groaned when a sudden pain struck her left shoulder. She turned her head to see what caused the pain and saw a senbon needle sticking out of her shoulder.

Kakashi pulled the senbon needle out of Yuko's shoulder and threw it away as he tried to look at the spot the needle had hit, but could not see much, because the spot was turning slightly away from him. "Are you okay Yuko?" He asked concerned and made her stop healing his arm as he stood up.

Yuko nodded and looked at the spot the senbon needle had hit. "I'm okay. The needle didn't hit a chakra point or a nerve, but it hit a blood vein." She said and stood up while holding a hand on the small puncture wound to stop the bleeding. She looked towards the missing-nin when she heard his chuckle and saw that he was standing. "You forgot all about me, or did you get ahead of yourselves and thought that you had won this fight already?" He asked and a smirk spread across his face under the bandages as he saw that Yuko applied more pressure on the small wound.

Even though the smirk was not visible, Kakashi could still sense the menacing look on the missing-nin's face, but considering that he had not hit one of Yuko's chakra points with the senbon needle, he figured that the missing-nin was not all back to his senses yet after gaining consciousness again and knew that they had to finish him off fast. "Yuko, can you still fight?" He asked, but did not take his eyes off of the missing-nin.

Yuko removed her hand from her arm and looked at the wound. It was still bleeding, but not as much as before. "Yes, I can fight." She said as she looked at Kakashi, who nodded understanding and grabbed a kunai from his weapon holster. "Good. Let's finish him while he's still just getting back to his senses." He said and charged at the missing-nin with Yuko right in his tail.

The missing-nin watched the two Konoha ninjas as they charged him and smirked wider when he pulled in a wire string, making a bunch of kunais and shurikens fly towards Kakashi and Yuko, but frowned deeply when Yuko turned around and deflected the kunais and shurikens along with a clone; using their katanas.

Kakashi was still charging at the missing-nin, while Yuko and her clone were deflecting the weapons, and clashed his kunai with the missing-nin's kunai when he tried to defend himself from Kakashi's attacks.

Yuko lowered her katana when there were no more weapons flying in her direction and turned around to go and help Kakashi, but got an idea. "Kakashi, move!" She said as she did the hand seals for a wind jutsu and raised her katana. "Shinkuken!" She released the jutsu as she swung her katana in the direction of the missing-nin and a gust of wind was released, blowing the missing-nin into a tree.  
Kakashi jumped out of the way as Yuko released her jutsu and saw it as an opportunity to combine his fire jutsu with Yuko's wind jutsu and made the hand seals. "Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" He released the fire jutsu into the wind jutsu, and the fireball was thrown towards the missing-nin with high speed.

Yuko looked at the missing-nin as he tried to get away from the wind jutsu before the fireball would reach him, but she knew that she could not let him escape. She gripped her katana differently and threw it towards the missing-nin as fast as she could and watched as her katana vanished into the fireball, but appeared on the other side and pierced through the missing-nin's throat before he got away, which killed him instantly before the fireball hit him and the tree.

Yuko panted lightly and looked at Kakashi, who was looking towards his students to check on them, which made her look as well, since she was worried for them and curious to see how well they had fought the other missing-nins. She could see that Naruto and Sakura killed the last one of the ninjas and the other two were lying dead on the ground. "We did it." Yuko said and went to get her katana after making her kusarigama disappear back in her scroll.

Kakashi nodded lightly and looked at Yuko; blinking when he saw that her left arm was covered in her own blood from the puncture wound the senbon needle had made. "Yuko, your arm." He said as he walked over to her. "It looks like you lost about a half liter of blood. Are you okay?" He asked and looked at her.

Yuko looked at her arm and blinked. "Yeah, I'm okay. The bleeding didn't stop entirely, so when I began to move my arm around when I deflected the kunais and shurikens it just continued to bleed." She said and looked at Kakashi. "How's your upper arm feeling? Does it hurt a lot?" She asked and looked at his arm.

Kakashi shook his head and slipped his hands into his pockets. "I'm okay. It doesn't hurt that much, thanks to you." He said and looked at his students as they came over to him and Yuko. "Are you guys okay?" He asked and looked them over, but did not see any major wounds.

Naruto nodded at Kakashi's question."We're okay Kakashi-sensei, but they sure gave some of a fight." He said and scratched the back of his head, but blinked when he saw that both Kakashi and Yuko had been bleeding. "You two look like you had a tougher fight than us, and you were two against one."

Kakashi nodded and sighed a bit. "He was quite tough, but he's dead now. Let's get back to the village and report this to Tsunade, so that she can send an ANBU team out to get the bodies." He said and began to run back towards the village; the others following him.

Yuko only took a few steps and did not get to speed up as her body began to feel tingly and she began to lose the feeling in her feet and legs before they gave up underneath her and she collapsed on her stomach on the ground, making the others stop up and look back at her.

"Yuko!" Kakashi hurried back to her and flipped her over on her back as he squatted down next to her. "What happened? Are you okay? Did you lose more blood than we thought?" He asked with a worried tone in his voice and helped her to sit up, but she just fell back on her back.

Yuko winced when she hit the ground after Kakashi had tried to make her sit up and shook her head at his question. "I-I didn't lose too much blood. I don't know what happened, but I can't feel from my shoulders and down to my feet." She said and looked at Sakura as she kneeled down next to her and placed her hands over her stomach. "You've been paralyzed, Yuko." She said and looked at Yuko. "Do you know what caused it?"

Yuko blinked when Sakura said that she had been paralyzed and began to think of what could have paralyzed her. She sighed annoyed when she realized exactly what had caused it. "It was the senbon needle. It has to be it." She said and looked back at Sakura. "Do you know for how long I'll be paralyzed?"

Sakura tapped her chin while thinking. "I'd say somewhere between a few days and a week." She said and looked at Kakashi when he picked Yuko up from the ground, which caused Yuko to squeal in surprise. "Let's get going. I'll carry Yuko back to the village." He said and began to run again, having the others right behind him the entire time.

Yuko sighed and felt completely useless as she was lying in Kakashi's arms and unable to move a muscle. "You should let one of the others carry me Kakashi. Your arm must be hurting." She said as looked up at him and watched him as he shook his head. "I'll carry you all the way back to the village Yuko. Like I said a few moments ago, my arm does not hurt thanks to you." He said and tightened his grip on her just a bit, but Yuko could not feel that. She just nodded lightly at his statement and closed her eyes to relax, since she was feeling quite exhausted, and ended up falling asleep. There was nothing else than that, that she could do now when her body was paralyzed. She felt stupid for not sensing the senbon needle before it hit her. If she had sensed it she would not be in the state that she was in at the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jutsus used:
> 
> Suiton: Suijinheki (Water release: Water formation wall)  
> Kusarigama (Chain-sickle)  
> Shinkuken (Vacuum sword)


	19. Getting to know you (Part one)

_July 23rd_

A day had passed since Yuko, Kakashi and his team had returned to the village after their fight with the missing-nins. Kakashi had insisted on taking Yuko to the hospital when they got back to the village, but Yuko had been stubborn and told him not to take her to the hospital, since there was no reason for her to take up a bed that could be used to someone who really needed it. She was not sick after all, she was just numb, so she did not see why she should be at the hospital. Kakashi gave in to Yuko's stubbornness, but only on the condition that she would let him take care of her until she could move properly again, since he felt like it was his fault that she got paralyzed, because she was healing his arm when she got hit with the needle that had the paralyzing poison on it. Yuko had hesitantly agreed to the deal, since she would rather be at home than at the hospital, so Kakashi had been at her place since they got back to the village.

Kakashi closed the front door to Yuko's home after saying goodbye to Sakura, who had just been there to give Yuko an antidote that would make the paralyzing poison leave Yuko's system faster. He went back to the living room to Yuko and looked at her as he sat down in the chair, which he had taken from the kitchen and placed in front of the couch. "Hopefully the antidote will work soon, so that you can move around again soon."

Yuko looked up at Kakashi and gave a slight nod. "Me too. I bet it must be annoying for you to be here and look after me. You must have other things that you really want to do instead of being stuck here." She said and looked away from him again. It had been awkward for her to have him around since two nights ago where he had expressed his worry for her. It had made her think about many things, too many things, about their past and their present and even though it had been almost two months ago that she returned to the village, it was not until now that she realized that she knew nothing of Kakashi. She had been so stuck on how he was towards her when they were kids that she had not tried to get to know Kakashi as the person he is now.

Kakashi smiled a bit behind his mask. "I'm not seeing it as being stuck here. I'm here on my own free will. Besides, this could be a way for us to get to know each other better, right? We've known each other since we were kids, but we don't know what has happened in each other's lives the past twenty years, so we actually don't even know each other that well after all." He said and crossed his arms over his chest while still looking at her.

Yuko blinked at what Kakashi said and looked up at him. "Do you read minds? I was just thinking of that, or actually, I've been thinking of that since yesterday." She said and began to blush when Kakashi chuckled a bit. "What's so funny?" She asked and raised her eyebrow.

"So you've been thinking about that since yesterday?" He asked, but purposely asked in a teasing way, because he thought that it was amusing that Yuko had been thinking about that, but it had also surprised him that she actually had thought of it, since she had not seemed to want to talk to him at all since she came back.

Yuko blinked at the teasing way Kakashi asked, but began to blush when she realized how weird it must have sounded when she said that she had thought about it since yesterday. "S-shut up!" She said as she looked away embarrassed and blushed even more when she heard Kakashi chuckle again. Was this amusing to him?

"How about I heat the leftovers from last night? You must be getting hungry." Kakashi said as he got up from the arm chair and went to the kitchen to heat the leftovers. He had not meant to chuckle at Yuko's reaction, but he found it quite cute, so he could not help himself but chuckle.

Yuko pouted and looked up at the ceiling while trying to think of something that would make her blush go away, but she kept asking herself why she reacted the way she did, why she had been thinking about Kakashi the way she has since two nights ago, and why it did not anger her or made her snap at him when he picked her up, touched her and spoke to her. Maybe she really was in the process of forgiving him and subconsciously knew that it was not necessary to snap at him.

Kakashi entered the living room again and had a plate and fork in his hand. He put it all on the coffee table before helping Yuko to sit up in the couch and sat down on the chair himself. He picked up the plate, got some food on the fork and moved it towards Yuko's mouth, which made her blink surprised and look at Kakashi with a raised eyebrow. "Kakashi, what are you doing? I can eat my food myself."

"Says the one who's paralyzed and can't move a muscle in her body. The only way for you to get food is if I feed you, so just open your mouth and eat without protesting." Kakashi said with a rather serious tone in his voice, which made her look surprised and just open her mouth without saying anything else about it. Kakashi smiled slightly satisfied behind his mask and fed her.

Yuko avoided to look at Kakashi while he fed her. She was feeling quite embarrassed and somewhat humiliated to have someone else feed her, her food, let alone that it was Kakashi who was doing it. "This is so embarrassing and humiliating! Why does it have to be you, who's feeding me?" She asked after a few minutes and looked at him with slightly red cheeks.

"Why does it have to be me? Well, because I'm the one who's here to help you. What's so wrong about me doing it, compared to if it was someone else?" Kakashi asked and gave her some more food while looking at her; waiting for an answer.

Yuko chewed the food that Kakashi just gave her and swallowed it. She looked at Kakashi for a bit before she replied to him, since she did not know how to reply to that properly. "... Nothing is wrong with you doing it." She said and looked away from him again. She really did not know why she felt so embarrassed that Kakashi was the one to do it, but she figured that it had something to do with that she had felt awkward around him lately.

"If it's not a problem that I'm feeding you then stop resisting and cooperate with me. I'm here on my own free will to help you, so there's no reason to be resisting my help, okay?" Kakashi asked with a serious tone in his voice and looked at Yuko with a slightly raised eyebrow. He wanted her to understand that he was there to help and that it would be easier for both of them if she did not resist his help, even if it felt embarrassing.

Yuko blinked surprised at the tone in Kakashi's voice and just nodded lightly before eating the last bit of food that Kakashi gave her. That was the second time that he used a serious voice and spoken to her like that, and in the short time that she had been back in the village after moving back he had not spoken to her like that before.

Kakashi got up from the chair and had the plate and fork in his hand. "I'll be back in a bit." He said and went to the kitchen with the dirty plate and fork. He washed it off and put it in the sink to wash off when he had eaten something himself. He walked back to the living room to Yuko and helped her to lie down on her back again before he sat back down on the chair and looked at her. "Let's talk and get to know each other, shall we?" He asked and smiled a bit behind his mask.

Yuko nodded and looked at Kakashi. "Sure, we can do that." She said and began to think about what she should ask him, since she had quite a few things she wanted to ask him, like, what happened after she left the village? What caused him to change from the person he used to be and into who he is now? Did anything good happen to him? But something that she was very curious about at the moment was why he wore his forehead protector to cover his left eye when he was wearing it, and why he had his left eye closed when he did not wear it. If she remembered correctly, Kakashi never did that when they were kids, so something must have happened and she was curious to know what it was. "Kakashi, what's with your left eye? When you wear the forehead protector you have it covering your eye, and when you're not wearing it you just have it closed. Did something happen to your eye?"

Kakashi blinked surprised at her question, since he had not expected that her first question would have been about his eye. He had thought that she would ask something about his life, or something like that. "I have the sharingan eye and I only use it when it's necessary in battle, so I keep my eye closed when I'm not using it."

Yuko raised her eyebrow a bit when he said that he had the sharingan, which she found quite hard to believe, since the sharingan eye belonged to the Uchiha clan, and Kakashi's surname was Hatake, plus, he did not have the sharingan eye when they were kids. "You got the Sharingan eye? Kakashi, the sharingan belongs to the Uchiha clan, so how can you have it?" She asked with much disbelief in her voice.

Kakashi just chuckled lightly and opened his left eye briefly to show his sharingan to Yuko. "I got it during the third shinobi world war. You might remember my old teammate, Uchiha Obito. He gave it to me before he died." He said and looked down at the floor as he took a deep breath before looking back at Yuko. She had a look of regret on her face, as if she had regretted asking when he had taken the deep breath. He assumed that even though she looked like she regret asking about his eye, she would still ask him about how Obito died, so he would tell her before she got the chance to ask him. "Like I said, it was during the third shinobi world war and I had just been promoted to a jonin at the time. Minato-sensei, Rin, Obito and I were on our way to destroy Kannabi Bridge to prevent Iwagakure forces to move into Kusagakure. Minato-sensei had to move on to the front line to help, so he let me in charge of Rin and Obito, since I had the highest rank. While the three of us continued towards Kannabi Bridge, Rin got kidnapped by the enemy. At that time I was still following the ninja rules very strictly and one of the rules says that a shinobi must always put the mission first. Because of that rule I told Obito that we would move on to Kannabi Bridge and go for Rin later. Obito got very upset about my decision and we got into an argument, but it ended up with him going after Rin and I headed for Kannabi Bridge."


	20. Getting to know you (Part two)

Yuko's eyes widened slightly when Kakashi said that Obito went to rescue Rin and he went to continue the mission. She knew that he was strict with the rules back when they were kids, but she had no idea that he would abandon a teammate, let alone a friend. "Did you really just leave Obito to rescue Rin on his own?" She asked, sounding somewhat disappointed in him.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, I didn't. Before Obito and I went each our ways, he said something to me that glued itself to my mind. He told me that he believed that my father was a hero for saving his comrade instead of finishing the mission, even though that he had been vilified by everyone else. The last thing Obito said before he left was: 'Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum'. It made me thinking and it made me realize that I had to follow him, so I ran after Obito to help him save Rin. Before we got to Rin my eye got injured, because one of the enemy ninjas made a cut across it. Obito awakened his sharingan after that and after he had wrapped bandage over my eye we went for Rin in their hideout. We fought the only guy that was in the hideout and we thought that we got him, or at least that he was unconscious, so we went to get Rin. The enemy ninjas was neither dead nor unconscious. He made the hideout crumble to kill us, but Obito, Rin and I ran for the exit to escape. A stone hit my head from my left side, which had become a blind spot from my injured eye, and I collapsed on the spot. Obito ran back to me and threw me to the side just as a huge rock fell down from the ceiling, but unfortunately he didn't make it away in time and got trapped under the rock. His entire right side was crushed and there was nothing that Rin or I could do to save him. Before he died he gave me his sharingan eye as a present to me for achieving the jonin rank."

Yuko just stared at Kakashi. She had no idea what to say to him at the moment, since she was shocked to hear what happened. Kakashi had changed his mind and went to help Obito, but in the end Obito was killed. She knew that Kakashi's father was dead, but she never knew how and she knew that now was not the time to ask, so she would not ask him of it. "Kakashi, I'm so sorry. It must be terrible for you to talk about, even though it's so many years ago now. I shouldn't have asked about your eye." She said and looked away from him. She really was regretting that she asked him about his eye, since she could hear the pain in his voice when he spoke about it. If she had not asked about it he would not have to tell about something from his past that was probably causing him a lot of pain to think of.

Kakashi looked at Yuko and figured that she was feeling bad about it when she looked away from him. "It's okay Yuko, don't worry about it. I'm the one who wanted to talk and get to know each other better, and you just asked a question. If I didn't want you to know about it I wouldn't have told you." He said and smiled faintly behind his mask.

Yuko looked back at Kakashi when he told her that it was okay, but she still felt bad about it. Even though that she could only see the half of Kakashi's face she could still sense the pained and sad expression he wore at the moment, which made her feel even worse about asking that question. "Okay, I asked you a question, so now you can ask me something." She said and smiled lightly at him, even though it was a forced smile. She wanted to change the subject to make Kakashi think of something else and make him have a different expression on his face.

Kakashi nodded lightly and thought about what to ask until he thought of something he would like to know. "You are born here in Konoha and lived here for five years as a registered Konoha resident and your parents were retired Konoha ninjas, so how was it to live in Kumogakure? Were you and your parents treated differently?" He was curious to know how it was to move from one ninja village to another and Yuko had tried it, so she would be able to tell him what it was like.

Yuko looked up at the ceiling while she thought back to the time where she arrived in Kumogakure with her parents. "Well, we of course had the permission from the Hokage and the Raikage to move, so entering Kumogakure was not difficult. Then the third shinobi world war started and that caused trouble for my parents and I. The Raikage suspected us to be spies, since we had moved to the village so short before the war started, even though my parents were retired ninjas and I was too little and clumsy to do any ninja work. Because of the Raikage's suspicion towards us he denied us to have any contact with people from outside the village. He would confiscate any letters to us and read them through himself first, he would inspect my parents' shop daily and had ANBU ninjas to watch over us all day long. I had an ANBU ninja to follow me when I went to the academy and back home again." She said and looked back towards him.

Kakashi nodded lightly as he listened to what Yuko told him. It did not really surprise him that the Raikage treated them the way he did when the third shinobi world war started, since they had moved to the village so close to the beginning of the war. "What happened after the war ended? Did the surveillance on you on your parents stop?"

"Not really, no. When the third Raikage died and his son took over as the fourth Raikage he would continue the surveillance on us, but not as strict as his father had done it. The fourth Raikage understood his father's reasoning for being suspicious of us, but since nothing had happened around us during the war he lowered the surveillance. We had an ANBU team watching us once a week and it only lasted for about half a year. He would still do inspections of my parents' shop, but he stopped that after about a year. The only thing he kept doing was confiscating our letters to read them himself first. Even when I had become an ANBU when I was 21 years old, the Raikage still did not trust me enough to let me in on confidential meetings or missions." Yuko said and smiled a bit. "And before you ask, yes, the Hokage has also been suspicious of me ever since I came back. She made it clear to me that I have to gain her trust, even if I'm an old Konoha resident. The day I got the letter about my sensei's death Tsunade made it very clear to me that if I give her any reason to believe that I'm a spy, she will consider me as a threat for the village."

Kakashi nodded understanding. He had indeed gotten the answer he wanted for his question, even though he had always assumed that it would be something like that for a ninja who had moved from one village to another. "Has it been difficult to live a life where you're suspected of being a spy and be under surveillance?"

Yuko nodded and yawned a bit. "Yeah, in the beginning it was. I was just 5 years old when it started after all, and all of the surveillance caused that most of the other kids to be afraid that they would get in trouble if they were near me, so they stayed away. But I got used to being suspected of being a spy as the years passed, and I knew that I wasn't a spy, so I had nothing to be afraid of."

"At least you didn't let it get to you that you were being suspected of being a spy, even after so many years in the village." Kakashi said and then looked at the time when he saw that Yuko yawned. "The time is 9:30 pm. Do you want to go to bed?" He asked and looked back at her. He had not noticed that an hour and thirty minutes had passed since he finished feeding her, so it was no wonder if she was feeling tired.

Yuko nodded lightly and yawned again. "Yeah, going to bed sounds like a good idea. I'm feeling very tired all of a sudden." She said as she looked at Kakashi when he got up from the chair and squealed when he picked her up in his arms. She already knew that he would pick her up, so she surprised herself when she squealed.

Kakashi just chuckled lightly at her squeal and carried her to her room. The door to her room was not closed properly, so he used his foot to gently push the door open and walked inside. He put her down on her bed and looked at her. "Okay, you're in your bed and ready to sleep, but there's just one thing we have to do."

Yuko yawned again and looked up at Kakashi. "Hm? What's that, that we have to do?" She asked and looked at his hand when he lifted her pajamas from the bed. A light red color spread across her cheeks when she realized that he wanted to change her into her pajamas. The only reason why she was wearing casual clothes now and not her ninja outfit was because that Sakura helped her change earlier before she gave her the antidote. Up till that point she had been wearing her ninja outfit. "F-forget it Kakashi! You're not going to change my clothes!" She said with a determined tone in her voice without sounding mad or raising her voice.

Kakashi chuckled at her reaction and kept holding Yuko's pajamas in his hand. "Well, I kind of figured that you wouldn't let me change your clothes to your pajamas, but you can't sleep in your clothes." He said and transformed into Sakura. "Would this make it easier for you to let me change your clothes?" He asked, but in Sakura's voice.

Yuko's blush just turned more red and shook her head frantically. "H-how's that's supposed to make me feel more at ease with you changing my clothes?! Even though you look like Sakura and have her voice, you're still you! I'll sleep in the clothes I'm wearing, and if the antidote I got earlier is working fast I should be able to move at least just a bit tomorrow, so I'll be able to change my clothes myself!"

Kakashi let go of his transformation and turned into himself while chuckling. "Easy Yuko. I'm just teasing you a bit. I know that you would never let me change your clothes for you." He said and put her pajamas back on her bed before pulling the blanket over her. "I'll be in the room across the hall like last night, so if you need anything just yell. Goodnight Yuko." He said and smiled at her behind his mask before walking out of her room. He walked downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat before he would go to bed.

Yuko stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before her eyes widened and her entire face turned red. She would hide her face in her pillow if she could move, but since she could not, she just closed her eyes and mumbled to herself. "That stupid idiot made me think that he would actually change my clothes!" She sighed heavily and took a deep breath to calm down from being all worked up about Kakashi's teasing. As she just laid there and felt relaxed, she once again felt tired and slowly fell asleep. "He really has... Changed." Was the last thing she said before she drifted into sleep.


	21. The slip up

_July 25th_

Two days had passed and Yuko was able to move around on her own again, but she was moving slowly, since some parts of her body was still feeling numb and she was feeling a bit sore from falling into the door frames and onto the floor, because she kept losing her footing if she walked too fast. Kakashi was still there to look after her, since he was worried that she would hurt herself badly from falling if she was by herself, so he wanted to make sure that she could move around properly before leaving her alone in her home.

Yuko was in the bathroom taking a shower, and she enjoyed it. She had not been able to shower since the day she went on the mission with Kakashi and his team and that was four days ago, so she did feel kind of gross. She kept watching the door while showering, since Kakashi had made her promise not to lock the door, in case she would slip and fall then he would be able to help her. She was not much for leaving the bathroom door unlocked with him in the house while she was showering, as she kept thinking that he would burst through the door at any given moment, but he did not. Yuko sighed lightly to herself and slowly stepped out of the shower as she finished. She almost lost her footing, but quickly grabbed on to the sink and prevented herself from falling. "That was close." She mumbled to herself as she grabbed the towel from the counter. The last thing she wanted was to fall and for Kakashi to enter the bathroom and see her naked. Once she had dried off she put on the relaxing clothes that she had brought with her before she showered. It was just a pair of black short leggings, like shorts, a grey top and a black cardigan. She opened the door to the bathroom and blinked when she saw Kakashi standing on the other side of the hallway. "Have you been there the entire time?" She asked and raised her eyebrow at him.

Kakashi was leaning against the wall and looking down at the floor when Yuko came out of the bathroom. He moved his gaze from the floor and looked at her as he nodded lightly at her question. "Yes I have. I had to be nearby, so I could get to you fast if you fell and needed help." He said as he moved away from the wall and walked closer to her. "But it seems like you got through the shower without falling." He said and a small smile formed on his lips behind his mask.

Yuko felt her cheeks flare up a bit at his words and looked away from him. "You didn't have to wait outside the bathroom door the entire time though, and saying that it seems like I got through the shower without falling, makes it sound like you wanted me to fall." She said and slowly walked towards the stairs.

"Hm? Now why would I want you to fall in the shower? That's dangerous and you could get seriously hurt." Kakashi said and followed Yuko. He got in front of her before she reached the stairs and held her hand while helping her down the stairs. He chuckled lightly when he noticed the blush on Yuko's face. "You know, you've been blushing a lot more lately."

Yuko was looking at the stairs the entire time while walking down and looked up at Kakashi once she was off the stairs. "So? Is something wrong with that?" She asked and let go of his hand quickly as she headed for the kitchen. She was hungry and wanted something to eat.

Kakashi looked at Yuko's back for a few seconds before he walked up next to her. "No, nothing is wrong with it. I'm just thinking that you're either getting sick, or you're softening up to me." He said and leaned against the door frame to the kitchen after Yuko had entered the kitchen.

Yuko blinked slightly at his words and turned around to look at him. "Are you implying that I'm falling in love with you?" She asked and looked away from him before he answered. She opened the fridge and grabbed some strawberries, a pineapple, some watermelon and put them on the counter before looking for the cutting board and the knife.

"That's not what I'm saying. I'm implying that you're opening up to me and letting me come closer to you. You've been nicer to me lately, compared to how you were towards me when we met again almost two months ago after twenty years of not seeing each other." Kakashi said and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're the one who thought I implied that you were falling for me. So, are you?" He asked and watched her as she picked up the knife to start cutting the fruit.

Yuko was having her back to Kakashi and she was quiet for a moment while thinking of his question. Was she actually falling for him? That could not be it, because why would she fall in love with Kakashi? Sure, he had made her blush quite a lot lately and she had been feeling weird around him the past few days, but that did not mean that she was falling in love with him. "You wish, Kakashi. Keep dreaming." She said as she began to cut the fruit and was being careful of not cutting her fingers. It was not easy for her to cut the fruit, because of her current strength it was difficult to cut through the hard shell of the watermelon.

Kakashi just chuckled lightly, but mostly because it seemed like that she had been thinking about his question. He walked over to her and placed a hand on hers that was holding the knife. "Why don't you let me cut the fruit for you? It looks like you could need some help." He stated and looked at her, but could not see her face, because he was standing behind her and her hair was covering the side of her face.

Yuko glanced down at her hand when she felt something touching her and began to blush when she saw that it was Kakashi's hand and felt her heart beat a little faster. It was not the first time that her heart had beaten faster in Kakashi's presence. The first time was four days ago when he had uttered his concern for her at the mission and the second time was three days ago when Yuko was healing Kakashi's arm after getting hit by the kunai and he looked into her eyes. She let go of the knife and moved her hand away from his. "S-sure, you can cut the fruit. I'll just go and sit on the couch in the living room." She took a step to the left to get away from him and turned on her heel to walk out of the kitchen.

Kakashi looked at Yuko as she took one step and gently grabbed her wrist. "Wait." He said and looked at her red face when she looked back at him. "Your face is still red. Maybe you are getting sick." He took a step closer to her and placed a hand on her forehead. "Your forehead is quite warm." He said and scooped her up in his arms.

Yuko squealed surprised when she was suddenly in Kakashi's arms. "K-Kakashi! Put me down! I-I can walk on my own!" She said and wrapped her arms around his neck when he began to walk out of the kitchen. Her heart was beating faster and it almost felt like it would burst through her chest.  
He put her down on the couch once he entered the living room and looked at her. "I know that you can walk on your own, but you seem to have a fever and it would be bad if you fainted on your way to the living room. I'm here to help you, so just let me do it."

Yuko looked up at him. Her face was red from all the blushing and from feeling embarrassed, and her heart was still beating fast in her chest. "I-I can take care of myself! I didn't ask for your help! J-just go and cut the fruit and leave me alone!" She snapped at him, because she was getting scared of the way he made her feel when he did small things to her, such as touching her hand, talking to her in a certain way and carrying her.

Kakashi blinked surprised by the way she snapped at him. He knew very well that she had not asked for his help, but he had volunteered to help her on his own, because he cared for her. "Okay, okay. I get it." He said and walked back to the kitchen. He sighed to himself as he began to cut the fruit for her. It had shocked him more than he thought it would when she snapped at him like that, and that confused him. He was used to her short temper towards him, but he had hoped that she was finally starting to let him in, because of the way she had been towards him lately. He realized that he may had misread her behavior, or maybe it was because that he wished that she would soften up to him, because of his own feelings towards her. It was not more than a few weeks ago that he had realized what he was feeling towards her after he had found himself thinking of her many times and had caught himself almost stare at her when she was around. It was obvious to him, even though that he did not quite understand it, but he longed for her.

Yuko looked down at her legs while having a hand on her chest to try and calm down her heart beat. She had not meant to snap at him like that, but she had gotten scared of her own feelings and acted upon it. Her heart beat was finally calming down and the blush on her face was slowly decreasing as well. She looked at Kakashi when he entered the living room again and looked at the bowl with fruit that he placed in her lap. "Thank you." She said and looked up at him again, but blinked confused when he left the living room again without saying a word. She grabbed the chopsticks in the bowl and began to eat her food while wondering what was wrong with Kakashi all of a sudden. He could not have been hurt when she snapped at her, because she knew that he was used to her hostile behavior towards him from the time they met again after she had moved back to the village, so what was wrong?

Kakashi was sitting on a chair in the kitchen with his elbows on the table and his hands folded in front of his face. He was staring onto the table while thinking about the current situation and what he was feeling at the moment. He was still somewhat confused that it had shocked him to hear her snap at him like that, even though that he had already figured out why it had shocked him. He had feelings for her, he loved her and he had put his hopes up when she had started to be nicer to him. Maybe it was for the best for both of them if he took some distance to her for some time.

Yuko entered the kitchen when she finished the bowl of fruit and put the bowl in the sink. She was standing with her back facing Kakashi, but she turned her head a bit and glanced back at him. She felt the guilt flush over her when she saw that he was just sitting in the chair and staring at the table. She should apologize to him for snapping at him like that, since it was not her intention to do that. "Kakashi, I-... Thank you for cutting the fruit for me." She mentally slapped herself for not apologizing when she had just told herself that she should apologize to him.

Kakashi blinked when he heard Yuko talk to him and looked over at her. He had not noticed that she had entered the kitchen, since he was deep in his thoughts. "You're welcome Yuko." He said with a tone that sounded like a mix of boredom and hurt. He had tried to hide the fact that he was feeling a bit hurt and looked away from her again.

Yuko felt her chest tighten when she picked up on the faint hurt tone in his voice. She felt even more guilty now than she did before and she could feel that on her body. It was like the guilt had turned her body into jelly. She turned around slowly and looked at him as she walked over to him. "Kakashi, I'm really so-" She cut herself off midsentence when she lost her footing, because of her jelly body. She closed her eyes as she fell forward and waited for the painful impact with the hard wooden floor.

Kakashi could see from the corner of his eye that Yuko had lost her footing and within the blink of an eye he was in front of her. He wrapped his arms around her when she fell into him, but she had fallen into him hard, which caused him to stumble backwards and fall back. He kept his arms around her as he fell, to keep her from hitting the floor, and closed his eyes as he groaned a bit when the back of his head hit the floor.

Yuko groaned a bit from the soft impact with whatever it was that she landed on. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked when she found herself staring into Kakashi's neck, and lifted her head slowly to see that she was lying on top of him. "Kakashi... Are you okay? Why did you do that?" She asked puzzled, as she was wondering why he broke her fall when he seemed to be hurt, because of something she had said.

Kakashi opened his right eye and looked at Yuko. He could see the puzzled look on her face and smiled just very faintly behind his mask. "You have fallen and hurt yourself enough already since yesterday, and I'm here to help you, so how could I let you fall and get hurt when you were right in front of me?" He asked and held back a chuckle when he saw her cheeks become slightly red. "And to answer your first question: I'm okay, but the back of my head hurts a bit. The pain will pass soon, so don't worry about it."

Yuko nodded lightly and sighed a bit out of relief that he was okay. She realized how close they were to each other when she felt his chest rise against hers when he breathed and felt the light weight of his arms around her waist. Strangely enough she liked it. It was like she felt safe in his strong arms. She looked at his face and noticed the small outline of his lips through the mask. This was the closest she had ever been to Kakashi and to see his face. She kept staring at his lips and without noticing it she leaned closer to them and eventually locked her lips with his, but with the mask between their lips.

Kakashi blinked highly surprised when he suddenly felt the warmth of Yuko's lips against his through his mask. He had not expected that she would kiss him, since he thought that she disliked him, and it had caught him off guard. He did not object to her kiss though, but he would like it more if the mask were not separating their lips. He moved his hand up to his face, grabbed the hem of the mask and slowly pulled it down. A warm feeling of delight spread through his body when he felt her soft and warm lips against his. He tightened his embrace around her waist and held her closer to him.

Yuko had been in her own world the entire time from the moment she locked her lips with his and was enjoying the situation more than she thought she would, but was snapped out of it when she felt Kakashi tighten his grip around her. Her eyes widened slightly when she realized that his mask was gone and their lips were connected. She pulled away from the short, but emotional, kiss and slipped out of his grip before backing up against the cupboards.

Kakashi felt irritated and confused when Yuko broke the kiss and moved away from him. He was really enjoying the kiss and she kissed him first, so he did not see why she would move away from him that fast. He slowly sat up and looked over at her; seeing that she was touching her lips with her index finger and her middle finger. "Yuko?" He asked and moved a bit closer to her.

Yuko glanced at Kakashi when he said her name and was surprised to see his face uncovered. She glanced over his jaw line, his nose, his lips and took in all the features of his face; he was very handsome. She felt her cheeks getting warmer after her heart began to beat slightly faster in her chest. "Kakashi... Please, go home. I want to be alone." She said and looked away from him again. She did not know what to do at the moment. She felt like she was fully exposed for an enemy attack, but Kakashi was no enemy and that scared her. Right now she would rather face fifty enemies on her own than face Kakashi after what had just happened. It scared her that he made her feel the way she did and it scared her that she had kissed him.

"Yuko, please. I-" Kakashi was cut off when Yuko just raised her hand to stop him from talking. He sighed and pulled his mask back up. "Okay, I'll leave you alone and give you some time." He said and got up from the floor. "I'll see you around Yuko." He went to get his things from the guest room before he went to the door, put on his shoes and left. He did not know what to feel at the moment. Should he be happy by the fact that they kissed each other and that he had a chance to have her close to him? Or should he be worried about it, because it seemed to have pushed Yuko further away from him? Either way, it was probably for the best to give her some time to think. He just hoped that her decision would not end up hurting him.

Yuko slowly got up from the floor and made her way to the living room. She sat down on the couch, pulled a knee up to her chest and wrapped her arms around it while resting her forehead on her knee. She closed her eyes as she felt the tears fight their way to her eyes. Letting go of the tears seemed like a pretty good idea, since she was one big mess of emotions at the moment and did not know what to do. She realized that she probably had fallen in love with him, but when did it start and why? She had tried to avoid Kakashi from the time she met him again after moving back to the village, and she had been snapping at him a lot, so when did she change her opinion on him? She did not know and at the moment she could not think of it either. Telling Kakashi to leave her alone was probably for the best right now, since she knew that she would not be able to be around him while figuring out exactly what was happening. Does she love him? Or does she not?


	22. Giving in

_August 1st_

A week has passed since the incident where Yuko had kissed Kakashi and she has done anything in her might to avoid him. Every time she thought of the kiss her heart would beat faster and her face would heat up and a red blush would spread over her cheeks. The same thing happened if she saw Kakashi. It would remind her of the kiss when she looked at him, so she found it very difficult to be around him, since she still had not figured out what she felt towards him. She could not figure out if it was just because that she felt embarrassed of kissing him, or if she actually had feelings for him. She had never felt like this before towards anyone, not even towards Shii when they dated shortly when she was 16 years old.

It was 9:30 in the evening and Yuko was sitting on her bed in her bedroom; reading a book. She did not know who to turn to and ask about her feelings, or what she should do, since her parents were dead, the woman who was like her second mother was dead, she did not know Kurenai well enough to ask her something like that and it was out of question to ask Gai, or any of the other guys about her feelings. The only option she had was to seek guidance in a book, so she had bought a few books with romance as the theme in hope that they could help her answer some of her questions about her feelings.

Yuko glanced towards the door to the small balcony that was connected to her bedroom when she felt someone's presence and frowned a bit. She slowly put the book down and grabbed a kunai from the top drawer in her nightstand before getting out of the bed and slowly made her way to the balcony door. She got her hand behind the curtain and got the door unlocked and opened swiftly. She stepped out on the balcony just as fast as she had opened the door and held her kunai to the intruder's throat, but blinked when she saw who it was. She sighed and lowered the kunai again before crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here, Kakashi?" She asked as she looked at him and arched an eyebrow at the stunned look on his face.

Kakashi had not expected that he would get a kunai to his throat when he arrived, which is what stunned him. He snapped out of it and looked at Yuko while slipping his hands into his pockets. "We need to talk, Yuko." He said and looked at her with a serious expression, but he raised an eyebrow a bit when he saw that she was wearing a short robe that reminded of a haori and it did not seem like she was wearing something underneath it. "Uhm, are you just wearing that?"

Yuko tightened her grip around the kunai to prevent blushing when Kakashi mentioned that they had to talk, but then frowned when he thought that she was not wearing anything under her robe. "Of course I'm not just wearing the robe!" She untied the robe and revealed that she was wearing a top and shorts. "Do you think that I would let you inside if I was naked under my robe?" She asked, but sighed when she remembered that he was there to talk. "What is so important to discuss that you had to come here at this time and can't wait until tomorrow? And how did you know I was awake?" She asked and avoided looking at him.

Kakashi sweat dropped when she untied her robe and he knew that she would not have let him in if she did not wear something under it, but he had to ask just to be sure. "We need to talk about us, about what happened a week ago. You can't keep avoiding me forever... And I was taking a walk and I could see that the light in your room was on through the curtain, so I figured that you were most likely awake." Kakashi said and took a step closer to her.

Yuko turned around when he took a step closer to her and stepped inside her bedroom. "... I have nothing to discuss with you, Kakashi. You should just go home. I want to sleep." She was not ready to talk to Kakashi about the incident, since she had not yet sorted out her own feelings, so she just wanted him to leave her alone.

Kakashi grabbed Yuko's wrist when she walked away from him, which made her stop in her tracks. "It can't wait until tomorrow, and even if we waited to talk about it till tomorrow, you would avoid me again. We need to talk about it now. I've waited for you to come to me and talk about it for a week now, but you just keep avoiding me." He said and waited for her response.

Yuko was quiet for a bit and then yanked her wrist out of Kakashi's grip. She turned around and looked at him rather upset that he would not leave. "I don't know what to say to you Kakashi. I haven't figured out what's going on with me, so how do you expect of me to be able to talk to you about what happened?" She asked as she sat down on her bed and kept avoiding looking at him.

Kakashi took off his shoes before he stepped inside her bedroom and left the shoes on the balcony. He walked over to her and sat down next to her, but kept some space between them, so that she would not freak out. "You don't have to talk if you don't want to, but I need to get this off my chest. You can just listen to what I have to say. Okay?"

Yuko felt her heart skip a beat when she felt Kakashi sit down next to her on the bed. She glanced to the side at him, but looked at his knees, and nodded lightly at his suggestion of just letting him talk. She figured that she probably could not make him leave, since he seemed to be very determined to talk to her about it.

"Thank you." Kakashi said and smiled lightly behind his mask. He felt somewhat relieved that she at least let him talk. "You may not believe me, but I was just as shocked that you kissed me as you were, and I still am, but not because I'm confused about my own feeling, because I have already realized what I feel for you. What shocked me about it, and surprised me, is that I thought it would be the last thing that you would ever do to me, since your behavior towards me has been on the more hostile side since we met again after so many years. I understand why you don't like me, because of how I teased you when we were kids, but you never gave me a chance to let me explain to you why I did it." He paused to give Yuko a chance to say something, but she kept quiet, so he continued. "When we were kids I always thought that it was weird that you kept trying to throw weapons when you clearly lacked skills at handling them. You were just a little girl and your parents' weren't ninjas, so I couldn't really understand why you wanted to be a ninja, just like I never understood why Gai wanted to be a ninja, since he lacked ninjutsu and genjutsu skills. I began to admire your persistence to want to handle weapons and admiration towards you slowly developed into a small crush. I wanted to help you to become better, but I was a boy with no parents or other relatives to talk to about such things, so I didn't know how to understand the crush, or interact properly with you. The only way I could think of was to do the same to you that I did to Gai and Obito that made them work harder, which was teasing them and make fun of them. I know that it was wrong, but it worked for them, so I thought that it would work for you too."

Yuko just stared at floor while Kakashi was talking, but when he began to talk about their childhood she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Their childhood was something she did not want to think about all the time, because of his teasing, so she tried not to listen too much, even though she knew that it was rude. She blinked when he mentioned that he had had a crush on her when they were kids and slowly lifted her head to look at him. "Wait, hold on... You had a crush on me when we were kids?"

Kakashi looked into her eyes when she looked at him and nodded at her question. "I did. I know that it's hard to believe, since I never said anything or showed it, but like I said I didn't know how to understand my feelings and understand that I had a crush on you. Deep down I have always felt regret that I teased you the way I did, because it made you cry most of the time, and it was never my intention to make you cry. It wasn't until I was much older, like, my late teen years, that I somewhat understood those feelings, but you were long gone, so there was nothing I could do about it. When you came back to the village I almost couldn't believe that it was you. You had moved years ago, so why would you be in Konoha? After seeing you a few times I remembered the small crush I had on you when we were kids and when I noticed how you have matured and what a great weapon specialist you've become I found myself getting a crush on you again. I know that it's not easy for you to forgive me for what I did when we were kids and I can understand you if you won't, but... Yuko, I have feelings for you."

Yuko's eyes widened slightly at his words and a blush spread across her cheeks as her heart began to beat a little faster in her chest. "You-... You have feelings for me? Is that why you worried about me and wanted me to come along on the mission with you and your team? And is that why you got jealous when I told you that Shii and I dated?"

Kakashi nodded at her questions. "Yes and... Yes." He said, but was hesitant with his last 'yes' and looked away from her. He was not much for admitting that he had been jealous on Shii, since he did not know the guy and Yuko was only with him shortly when she was a teenager. Plus, the chances that Yuko would see Shii again were close to zero, so he had no reason to be jealous anymore.

Yuko looked down at the floor and bit the inner side of her bottom lip. Her heart was still beating faster and Kakashi's words kept repeating themselves over and over in her mind. He had a crush on her when they were kids and he had feelings for her now. She felt more confused now than she did before, because of Kakashi's confession. She glanced towards the book she had been reading before Kakashi arrived and tried to remember what she had read, but no matter how hard she tried to remember the context of the book she just could not remember it. His words kept repeating themselves in her mind and would not give room for other thoughts.

Kakashi looked at Yuko and waited for an answer. He did not expect of her to answer him now, but he would like to at least get a respond, or a reaction from her. She seemed to stay quiet and not look at him, so he thought of doing something drastic that would possibly make it all worse, but he had to try. He grabbed the hem of his mask and slowly pulled it under his chin. He placed his hand on top of hers on her thigh, which made her turn her head and look at him. He looked into her eyes for a few seconds and could see a blush forming on her cheeks when they got eye contact. He leaned in closer to her and slowly locked his lips with hers, kissing her softly.

Yuko's eyes widened slightly when Kakashi suddenly kissed her and her heart was beating faster. For a moment she wanted to pull away from him, but she quickly changed her mind. It did not surprise her as much as last time, since last time it was her who kissed him while he wore the mask, but he had removed the mask while she had her eyes closed, plus, she had kissed him out of the blue when she was feeling confused.

Kakashi slowly pulled from the kiss and gave her hand a light squeeze while still looking into her eyes. "I'm sorry if that freaked you out and confused you more, but I hoped that it would help you just a bit. I'll let you think for another five or ten minutes and if you still can't figure out what you are feeling then I'll give you all the time you need to figure it out. I just had to let you know how I feel." He said and smiled lightly.

Yuko touched her bottom lip after Kakashi had broke the kiss. She looked at him and nodded lightly at what he said, but was just starring at his face and thinking to herself that he had a charming smile and handsome face. She snapped out of it and looked away from him to think about what he had said and not getting distracted by his face or his smile. A lot of thoughts were running through her mind at the moment and it was quite difficult to understand all of them, but she slowly understood that she might have feelings for him too. She took a deep breath and looked at Kakashi again. "Before I say anything about what I've been thinking about, there's something I want to tell you."

Kakashi was just looking around in Yuko's bedroom while he let her think in silence without saying a word, but he hoped to get an answer and he hoped that it would be that she also had feelings for him. If she did not have feelings for him he would just have to accept it, even though it would be difficult. He looked at her again when she spoke to him and nodded at what she said. "I'm listening."

Yuko looked down at the bed and rubbed the back of her neck. "It's actually because of you that I managed to become a weapon specialist and expert. Your teasing made me want to prove you wrong, even though we weren't in the same village. I thought that if I could prove you wrong then no one would question my abilities ever again. I became more focused and my sensei made me train harder." She looked up at him again and looked into his right eye. "Your methods of helping me were wrong, but it's thanks to you that I have gotten this far with my weapon skills and my skills as a ninja. I should have thanked you when I moved back and we met again, but I was being stubborn and stupid, and I wouldn't let you apologize and explain yourself to me. I apologize for that. When that is said and out of the world, I forgive you for what happened when we were kids."

Kakashi listened to what Yuko said and was surprised to know that it was because of him that she became a weapon expert and specialist, but it surprised him more that she apologized for her behavior and that she forgave him. He had not expected her to do that, not now at least. "You forgive me for what I did when we were kids?" He asked with a surprised tone in his voice.

Yuko nodded and smiled lightly. "I do, yeah." She said and took a deep breath. "And... About the other thing we are talking about, or more like you are talking about. I think I might have feelings for you too. It's not easy for me to figure them all out with a snap of my fingers. We knew each other as kids, but just for a little over a year and then I moved away. We haven't been in contact while I lived in Kumo, so we don't know much about each other and what happened in each other's lives the past twenty years, other than the things we talked about when you took care of me. Despite that, I'm willing to give us a chance. We can start out with spending more time together and go on dates and then take it from there. What do you say about that?"

Kakashi listened to what she was saying and nodded at the things she pointed out. She was right about what she said. A lot of things had happened in both of their lives in the twenty years Yuko was living in Kumo, so there was many things that they did not know about each other, but he already knew that before he came to her place to talk to her about it. He nodded at her proposal about spending more time together and dating and felt happy that she was willing to give it a try between them. "Thank you, Yuko. I'm really happy to hear that you want to give us a chance." He said and smiled at her. He looked at the time and was surprised to see that he had been there for about an hour and thirty minutes. "It's getting late, so I'll leave and let you rest. Do you want me to come back tomorrow? Or do you want to be by yourself?"

Yuko smiled softly when he smiled and looked at the time when he pointed out that it was getting late, and he was right. The time was 11pm. She looked back at him and shook her head. "You can come by tomorrow if you want to."

Kakashi nodded and kissed her cheek before he pulled his mask back up. "I'll see you tomorrow then. I'm glad that we got to talk about this. Goodnight Yuko." He said as he got up from the bed and smiled behind his mask. He walked over to the balcony door, stepped out on the balcony and put on his shoes before jumping down. He walked down the street and could not help but smile a bit for himself behind the mask. Yuko had forgiven him for what he did when they were kids, they both had feelings for each other and now they were going to try and date. His little late night visit had turned out better than he thought it would.

Yuko blushed when he kissed her cheek. "Goodnight Kakashi." She said and watched him as he left. She moved up on the bed and laid down on her back; looking up at the ceiling. She thought about what just happened and all the things that had been said. "I forgave Kakashi for what he did, and that was probably about time. I should have done that a long time ago. And now I'm going to date Kakashi... It's weird to think about, but I don't think that I regret it." She said to herself and closed her eyes to sleep.


	23. Training together

_August 2nd_

Kakashi had come to Yuko's home the next day as he promised her that he would. He had arrived at her place around 8:30 in the morning when she was making breakfast and got to taste her cooking for the first time and he liked it. The two of them had been talking back and forth about each other's pasts, since they had agreed to get to know each other better if they were going to have a relationship. Yuko was shocked to hear about many of the things that Kakashi told her that had happened in his life after she moved and she was slightly surprised that he had turned out to be who he was despite what he had been through. He was strong. Not just physically, but also mentally, if he could turn his life around like he did. She could understand that he still had his moments of feeling depressed, but who would not have such moments after such a past?

Kakashi looked at the time and blinked when he saw that the time was 1:10pm. "We've been talking for almost five hours." He said and looked at Yuko. He had not imagined that their conversation would last that long and there were still many thing to talk about, but they could save those things to be talked about for another time.

Yuko blinked and looked at the time. "We have. I didn't even notice that the time passed so fast. I thought that we had only been talking for two hours, maybe three." She said and looked at Kakashi. "Is there something else you want to do? Or was it just talking for today? I have some training to do at the third training ground, since I have a lot of training to catch up to." She said and got up from the chair.

He looked at her and nodded understanding. "If you're going to train, how about we go together? I have nothing better to do anyways, so why don't we train together?" Kakashi suggested and got up from the chair he was sitting in. "I can help you catch up to some of your training, if you want me to."

Yuko nodded lightly at his suggestion and smiled softly. "Sure, we can train together. You can wait for me at the front door while I go and change into my ninja attire." She said before she walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to her bedroom. She entered her room and quickly changed into her ninja attire, placed her weapon holster around her right thigh, her pouch over her right buttock and her katana by her left hip. She walked back down and went to the door where Kakashi was waiting for her.

Kakashi looked at her when she came to the front door and walked outside while she put on her boots. He closed the door once she was outside and began to walk after she had locked the door. He had his hands in his pockets as they walked and would occasionally glance at Yuko. She was being quiet. "Are you okay?" He asked curiously.

Yuko blinked when he asked that and looked up at him. "Yeah, I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?" She asked and got eye contact with him when he looked at her. "You're quiet, so I was just wondering if something was wrong." Kakashi said and looked ahead again.

She giggled and shook her head before looking ahead as well. "I'm fine. I was just thinking of how to kick your ass when we train." She said and glanced at him to see his reaction to her words, but she was walking on his left side, so she could not really see his face from his mask and his forehead protector.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow slightly and glanced to the side at Yuko when she exposed her thoughts of kicking his ass. "I won't go easy on you, and I won't let my guards down either." He said and looked ahead again, seeing the third training ground coming into sight.

"Well, I didn't expect of you to do either of those things. Actually, I kind of expect that you want payback from when I won the fight when Tsunade tested my abilities." She said, well knowing that she was poking at a soft spot when she mentioned that. She stopped up once they arrived at the third training ground and looked at Kakashi when he stood next to her.

Kakashi sighed and turned to look at Yuko. "You do know that you're making me more determined to win when you say that, right? And I'll tell you again, like every other time you mention that fight; you caught me off guard." He said and walked away from her to have some distance between them before they would start training.

Yuko just smiled at Kakashi and shrugged. "Maybe I mentioned it on purpose to fire you up and make you want not to lose. It wouldn't be proper training for me if you were holding back, just because I haven't been able to train in almost two weeks."

Kakashi stopped up when he was about five meters away from Yuko and turned around to look at her. "I wasn't going to hold back either way, but your provoking worked. I don't want to lose, even if it's just training." He said before he ran at her and aimed a punch for her head, but Yuko blocked his punch and aimed a kick for his side, which Kakashi dodged by grabbing her ankle. He pushed her foot away from him, causing her to lose her balance and quickly grabbed a few shurikens from his weapon holster and threw them towards her.

Yuko placed her hands on the ground when she lost her balance and did it with enough speed to make a cartwheel and move away from the shurikens that Kakashi threw at her. She quickly stood up again and aimed a punch for Kakashi's stomach.

The two of them had been training intensely for about twenty minutes with taijutsu only, but Yuko was the first one to switch to ninjutsu. She drew her katana from its scabbard and raised it above shoulder height. "Shinkuken!" She swung her katana and a gust of wind was released in Kakashi's direction, but he dodged the jutsu and jumped into a tree. He quickly made the hand seals to the fire jutsu 'Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu' and a giant fireball went in Yuko's direction.

She frowned a bit, but swiftly did the hand seals to the water jutsu 'Suiton: Suijinheki' and she blew out water from her mouth, creating a wall of water around her and intercepted Kakashi's fireball, stopping it completely before it even got to reach her, but the impact of the fireball with the water created a thick and heavy steam around them, which made it difficult to see anything.

Kakashi took advantage of the steam and moved out of the tree just to appear behind Yuko. He moved his arm around her neck and kept it in a lock while holding a kunai to her back. "I win." He whispered into her ear, but glanced at her when she uttered a simple 'heh' and turned into water. It was a water clone. Kakashi chuckled and looked around, even though he could not see anything from the steam. "Has this turned into a game of hide and seek?"

"Not really, no. I just figured that you might try to do something like that." Yuko said from somewhere within the heavy steam. She approached Kakashi silently from behind and placed the tip of her katana against his back. "You're probably a clone too, but I'm giving it a try anyways. Are you ready to give up?" She asked and kept her eyes on Kakashi.

He just chuckled and turned his head to glance back at her. "Your observation is great; I am just a clone. But no, I'm not giving up." The clone said and disappeared as Kakashi appeared behind her and held a kunai to her back. "The question is if you're ready to give up? You must be exhausted by now." He asked and pressed the kunai closer to her back, so that she could feel the kunai.

Yuko shook her head and looked up towards the sky. The steam was clearing up, which made it easier to see things. "I'm not ready to give up." She said before she quickly turned around and disarmed him by hitting his wrist with her knee, which caused him to drop his kunai. She grabbed his wrist before he could move away, held him against her hip and threw him over her shoulder. She sat down on his waist and held her katana to his throat. "I win." She said and smirked faintly.

Kakashi blinked surprised at how fast Yuko had gotten him on the ground, but chuckled a bit. "Are you so sure about that, Yuko?" He asked and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. It was another clone. The real Kakashi appeared from under the ground, using the earth jutsu 'Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu', and grabbed Yuko's arms. He pushed her over on her back, making her squeal in surprise, and pinned her arms down above her head while hovering over her on all four. "Hmm, I think I won." He said and chuckled.

Yuko blinked surprised and looked up at him while blushing just faintly. She had not expected him to appear from underground, as she thought that the Kakashi she had pinned down was the real one and she thought that she had won. "H-hey! You caught me off guard."

Kakashi chuckled and let go of her arms and sat on his butt. "I know. That was the point. I figured that you might try something like that if we were to do short ranged combat, rather than using long ranged jutsus, so when you were surrounded by steam I made two clones and sent one after you first while I hid under the ground and waited for my opportunity to catch you off guard."

Yuko sat up when Kakashi moved away from her and put her katana back in its scabbard. "Was it intentional, or did you want payback from the time Tsunade tested my skills?" She asked curiously and looked at Kakashi. She had a feeling that he had done it to get payback from that time where she caught him off guard.

Kakashi shrugged and got up from the ground. "It was both intentional and to get payback from back then." He said and dusted off his clothes. He reached his hand out for Yuko to take to help her up and smiled at her behind his mask.

Yuko sweat dropped a bit and sighed. "I figured." She said and looked at Kakashi's hand when he reached it out towards her. She placed her hand in his and got up from the ground with his help. A faint blush appeared across her face when she felt Kakashi's hand on her cheek, which made her look up at him.

"You're a good ninja, Yuko. You have definitely grown in your skills and abilities over the years." Kakashi said, which caused Yuko to blush some more. He was about to say something else, but was cut off before he even got to open his mouth when two familiar faces showed up next to them.

"Hey. What are you two doing here?" Kotetsu asked and smirked a bit when he saw Kakashi remove his hand from Yuko's cheek. "Or perhaps I should ask what's going on here? Since when did you two become so friendly with each other?" He asked teasingly and chuckled.

Yuko blinked and flicked Kotetsu's forehead. "Shut up Kotetsu. What's going on between Kakashi and I are none of your business. But we were just training together." She said as she crossed her arms over her chest and tried not to blush from Kotetsu's teasing.

Kotetsu grunted and rubbed his forehead. "I was just asking. Seeing you two together, and alone for that matter, is not something that has happened before, so I was just curious. You usually take distance from Kakashi." He pointed out and tried to look at his forehead. "Do I have a mark on my forehead now?" He asked after turning his head to Izumo.

He looked at Kotetsu's forehead and shook his head. "No, there's no mark." He said and looked at Kakashi and Yuko again. "It's great to see that the air between you two are getting better and that you can be alone together without ending up in a fight." He said and smiled. "Would you like to join us for training? Or are you done for today?"

Yuko looked at Kakashi when Izumo asked if they wanted to train and looked back at him when Kakashi nodded. "Sure, we'll train with you for a bit." She said and took some distance from the three of them. She was honestly feeling a bit exhausted from the training with Kakashi, since she had not been able to train for a while, but she wanted to train some more to catch up to the training she had missed.


	24. The first date

_August 9th_

Yuko was on her way to Kakashi's apartment. They were going to have their first date together and they had decided to do it in private, since it was not going to be a super fancy dinner. They had agreed on doing it at Kakashi's place, rather than at Yuko's place, since she had not been at his place before. She was a bit nervous about the date, since she was still feeling slightly nervous around Kakashi, because of her newly discovered feelings for him. It was just about a week ago that she and Kakashi decided to try dating before taking it a step further, if they were even going to do that, but the more she was with him, the more she saw new sides of him that she did not notice before, since she would hardly look his way before. She was also nervous about the date, because it was the first time she was going to his apartment. She knew that Kakashi could cook, since he had cooked for her when he took care of her when she was paralyzed, so she was not worried about the quality of the food.

She looked at the building Kakashi lived in once she got there and walked inside the building. She walked up the stairs to the floor he lived on and walked down the hall. She looked at the numbers on the doors and found the number he said he lived in. The feeling of being nervous got stronger as she just stood there and stared at the door. She took a deep breath before finally knocking on the door.

Kakashi was setting the table when Yuko knocked on the door and put down the chopsticks, the last thing to put on the table, before he went to the door. His lips formed into a smile when he saw Yuko and stepped away from the door to let her enter his apartment. "Come in Yuko." He said and closed the door once she was inside.

Yuko took off her shoes and sniffed the air, since she could smell the food all the way to the door. It smelled delicious. "Mmh, it smells good. What are you cooking?" She asked and followed Kakashi to the kitchen.

"I'm making oyakodon. I thought it would be a good idea to make, since we decided that it shouldn't be something fancy, and it tastes good." Kakashi said and checked on the oyakodon and the rice. "You can take a seat at the table in the living room. The food is almost done, so I'll be there in a bit."

Yuko nodded and walked inside the living room. She looked around and noticed that Kakashi's living room looked a bit empty. There was a couch, a small coffee table, a lamp, a bookshelf with books and the table where they were going to eat their dinner, but it was a small table for not more than four people. He had nothing on the walls, or pictures of his family. The only two pictures that Yuko could see was a picture of himself and Obito, Rin and Minato from when they formed a team. The other picture she could see was on himself, Naruto, Sakura and boy with black hair. That guy must be Sasuke, who Naruto had mentioned a few times. It appeared from the picture that the two of them did not get along well, so it was a little surprising that Naruto was so keen on getting him back to the village. Seeing Kakashi's living room so 'empty' was kind of depressing, but considering his past she had not imagined that his home would be full of colors and decorations. That might also be more of a female thing to do to go overboard with decorations and colors.

Kakashi entered the living room with the bowls and placed them on the table in front of their seats. He looked over at Yuko, who was looking at the picture of him and the rest of team 7. "The food is ready." He said and pulled out a chair for her.

Yuko turned around when she heard Kakashi and looked at the food. "It looks good." She said with a smile and walked over to the table. She sat down on the chair he had pulled out for her and looked up at him when he pushed her closer to the table. "Thank you Kakashi."

"You're welcome Yuko." Kakashi said as he sat down in his chair at the other side of the table and looked at her. "Thank you. I hope that the food tastes just as good as it looks then." He said and picked up his chopsticks.

"I've already tasted your cooking. Your cooking skills are good, so I don't doubt that the food will taste good." She said as she picked up her chopsticks and tasted the food. She swallowed the food she had in her mouth and looked at Kakashi with a smile. "It's good Kakashi."

Kakashi smiled lightly. "I'm glad that you like it Yuko. Next time we should do it at your place. I haven't tasted your cooking yet. Well, that's not entirely true. We've eaten breakfast together once at your place." He said and began to eat.

Yuko blinked lightly and thought about it. Kakashi was right. He had only tasted her cooking once and that was for breakfast. "Let's do it at my place next time then. I'd love to cook for you. It's been quite some time since I cooked for someone else but myself." She said and ate some more of her food. The last time she cooked for someone else than herself was when she made dinner for her sensei before she left Kumogakure, but she did not want to bring that up now and make the mood sad.

"I'm already looking forward to taste your cooking." Kakashi said with a kind smile and continued to eat his food. He felt a spark of happiness that Yuko wanted to eat with him again, and just eating with her now and being alone with her, made him really happy. It made him happy that she was not hostile with him anymore and had given him a chance.

Once they finished eating their food, Kakashi gathered the dishes and took them to the kitchen. He did not want to do the dishes now, so he just put them in the sink to do them in the morning instead. "Do you want some help with the dishes?" Yuko asked as she walked inside the kitchen and looked at Kakashi as he shook his head. "It's fine. I'll just do them in the morning." He said and looked at Yuko, who just giggled. "Come on. If we do it now it'll be done and you won't have to beat yourself mentally in the morning for not doing them sooner." She said and pointed at the dirty dishes that he had used to make their dinner. "You wash and I dry."

Kakashi blinked and leaned against the counter. "If you're sure that you want to do it now. There's a kitchen towel in that cupboard." He said and pointed at the cupboard as he turned around to run the water in the sink. "We really don't have to do it now if you don't want to. You're here to have a relaxing evening with me." He said and adjusted the temperature of the water.

Yuko opened the cupboard that Kakashi had pointed to and grabbed a kitchen towel. "It's fine Kakashi, really. We're two to do it, so it won't take that long. Besides, I'm already relaxed and enjoying the evening with you." She said before kissing his cheek and was ready to dry off the dishes. She was not feeling nervous anymore, like she did when she arrived.

Kakashi smiled when she kissed his cheek. "Okay, we'll do the dishes quickly then." He said and began to rinse and wash off the dirty dishes, leaving the job of drying them off to Yuko. He still felt that it was wrong to let a guest help him with the dishes, but she insisted on helping and he knew how stern she could be. Plus, she was probably right when she said that he would beat himself mentally in the morning for not doing the dishes earlier.

Yuko dried off the last bowl and put it on the counter where she had put the other clean dishes, since she did not know where Kakashi kept his stuff. "See? That didn't take us more than ten minutes to do." She said and looked at Kakashi, who began to put the clean dishes away. "Yeah, thank you for helping me with the dishes Yuko. You were right when you said that I would beat myself mentally in the morning, so I'm really glad that you helped me."

"You're welcome Kakashi. I'm glad I could help somehow." Yuko said with a smile and walked back to the living room with him. She sat down on the couch and looked at Kakashi when he sat down next to her. "I'm really enjoying the evening with you. I'm glad that we decided to do this at home rather than going out to eat somewhere." She said and rested her head on his shoulder.

Kakashi smiled at her words and put his arm around her shoulder when she rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad to hear that." He said and gently rubbed her arm. "I'm glad as well that we decided to do it like this." He said and looked down at her.

Yuko smiled softly and looked up at Kakashi, seeing that their faces were rather close. It was still new to her to see him without his mask, since he always wore it and she had only seen him without the mask a few times since they kissed the first time. Whenever she sees his face her heart always skips a beat. She gently placed her hand on Kakashi's cheek and caressed it with her thumb.

Kakashi softly leaned into her touch and kissed her palm, which caused her to blush a little. His head followed the movement of her hand when she moved it towards her own face, but stopped when his lips were barely half an inch from hers and could feel her breath against his lip. He softly brushed his lips over hers before he kissed her.

Yuko blushed a little darker when Kakashi kissed her, but she kissed back softly. The kiss was soft and gentle, but deep. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the kiss she shared with Kakashi while thinking about how happy she was at the moment and how relaxed she was with him. She was glad about her decision to give him a chance. If she had not done that she would most likely have regretted it later on.


End file.
